Yesterday I spent the day with Ram Hariharan, Acumen Fund Fellow Alumni and Head of Operations at Bridge International Academies, and it was nothing short of amazing.
Bridge, a for profit company, has built a private franchise model for delivering primary education to the poor in Kenya. The founder and CEO, Jay Kimmelman calls it “a school in a box” and frankly that is exactly what it is. They have standardized everything from uniforms, to the provision of school lunches, to the architectural layout. They use a scripted approach to curriculum which means that literally every sentence of dialogue is written down for the teacher.
The schools all have built in incentive systems to ensure the highest quality and accountability. The school manager is rewarded based on the profitability of the school. They pull their teachers and school managers directly from the community in which the school serves. Because everything is standardized they can pull from a much larger pool of candidates (ie the candidates don’t have to have school management or teaching experience) and train them in their month long training course. This is actually my favorite part because they are building local talent, something that many organizations in this space struggle to do and do well.
The curriculum is of the best quality and designed in house by the bridge team led by Nomvuyo Mzamne, one of the most impressive and passionate women I have met in a long time.
Ok so you ask, what is the cost? This sounds too good…for just one month the school costs $3.75, a price in which 90% of Kenyan’s living in slums and afford!
Bridge has set up 7 schools so far (5 in the last week) and they will set up another 25 this year, 75 next year, and have goals to be serving 1 million students by 2016.
I told you it was nothing short of amazing.
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