Main content

Can US Entrepreneurs Help Fix Education in Africa?

A growing network of high-tech schools aims to tackle a ‘crisis’ in African education. The lessons are scripted, and teachers read them aloud, word for word, from e-readers

Many African countries face huge challenges in education. Millions of children completing primary school still struggle to read and teachers that should be in classrooms are routinely absent.

Two US entrepreneurs think they have a solution: a network of profit-driven low-cost private schools, called Bridge Academies, that can be created and staffed at lightning speed. Lessons are scripted by ‘master educators’, and teachers read them aloud, word for word, from e-readers.

Along with awards, the model has attracted a tidal wave of criticism from teaching unions, NGOs and governments too. World Hacks visits a Bridge Academy in Kenya to ask whether the controversial idea can work.

Presenter: Kat Hawkins
Reporter: Sam Judah

Photo Credit: ´óÏó´«Ã½

Release date:

Available now

23 minutes

People fixing the world on YouTube

Watch stories of people changing their world on the World Service English YouTube channel

Podcast