Aid millions for African schools which use tablets for teaching

MILLIONS of pounds of British aid has been handed to a chain of private schools in Africa where teachers read out scripted lessons from tablet computers.

MPs on the international development committee are demanding that officials examine whether investing large sums in Bridge International Academies was a good use of taxpayers’ money.

The firm, which MPs branded a ‘contentious partner’, has opened hundreds of schools in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Liberia, attended by around 100,000 fee-paying pupils. Teachers read scripted lessons from tablets that are also used to record student attendance and test results.

Critics have questioned the quality of schooling and issued warnings about the use of unqualified staff.

The Department for International Development’s (DfID) private investment arm CDC put £4.5million into BIA in

014, while the World’s Bank’s Interna- tional Finance Corporation, in which the UK holds shares, invested £7.6million.

DfID has also invested £11.3million in Ventures, a venture capital fund that has invested in BIA, and provided grant funding of £3.45million in Nigeria.

MPs who inspected the chain’s schools in Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda said: ‘It was clear from our visits that there was certainly a demand for Bridge schools from parents who could afford to pay.’

But they warned the quality of teaching was ‘variable’ and ‘notably poor’ in the Ugandan school visited.

In a report, the MPs said: ‘DfID should take further steps to satisfy itself that the model of educational provision offered by Bridge International Academies offers an effective educational return on the ODA [overseas development assistance] committed to it.’