Curro Articles This is a collection of new stories about "Curro", a private-enterprise "affordable" education service-provider in South Africa. The article reproduced in full is an interview with the CEO of Curro. Links to the other articles are given below it. MoneywebSmall.GIF Curro is doing great things in the education space Well on track for 200 schools by 2020 - Chris van der Merwe - CEO, Curro Hanna Ziady, Moneyweb, Johannesburg, 23 February 2016 HANNA ZIADY: Private school group Curro Holdings reports yet another outstanding set of financial results today. Headline earnings up 79% to R100m, schools' earnings up strongly too. And numbers of learners increased by about 5 000 to 41 864 Chris van der Merwe is the CEO of Curro and joins us in the studio now. Chris, welcome and a big congratulations on these results. CHRIS VAN DER MERWE: Thank you so much. HANNA ZIADY: Curro currently has 110 schools, up from 80 at the end of 2014. It seems to be well on track to achieve its target of 200 schools by 2020 and I believe it intends to invest up to R2bn in the group this year. CHRIS VAN DER MERWE: That's right. Let us inform the listeners about a venture that we are very excited about. We are currently experiencing a huge demand in terms of teacher training, so we spent millions to expand our campus in KwaZulu-Natal. Bear in mind that this was a campus that could only accommodate 800 students. We expanded that to a situation where we can accommodate 2 600. Then as we are speaking now we also are busy constructing an institute for higher education in Johannesburg, at Waterfall Estate. That facility will be able to carry 1 600 teacher students. And about two months ago we purchased a building in Pretoria that we are going to change to also become an institute for higher education. That facility will be able to carry approximately 1 000 students. Then we are also busy negotiating for a lovely berth in the Western Cape. So we are clearly seeing a demand for teacher training and this is closely linked to our core skills. So we will pursue that advantage. HANNA ZIADY: Absolutely fantastic. I think no one will argue with you that we need more and better trained teachers in South Africa. Chris, I asked Whitey Basson this question and I'm going to ask you too. With the talks that have been happening between business and government in recent weeks, have you been personally involved in these discussion and what do you make of them? Chris van der Merwe, CEO of Curro.jpg CHRIS VAN DER MERWE: I have been invited to address the NDP, their Vison 2030, on June 8 at Emperor's Palace, and Curro Holdings has prepared suggestions to the state how PPPs can work. Now there are really exciting ways how state and the independent sector can help each other out, and we see lots and lots of potential. So personally and on behalf of our board we feel that it's time to put the mechanisms of the NDP in place. HANNA ZIADY: Absolutely. Fantastic to hear we need more public-private partnerships. In terms of your schools, a third of Curro's roughly 41 000 learners attend schools with average school fees of less than R2 000 an month. Is Curro planning to build more of these lower-cost schools? CHRIS VAN DER MERWE: Undoubtedly. Some of these schools open with 1 000 learners on day one. So the demand is there, and it's priced at approximately R1 700 per month, which is very affordable. The nice thing about these schools is that the quality of education at micro level, or in the classes, is precisely the same as in a Curro original school, but you've got to cut. activities to save costs. These are English-only schools and the ratio is 1:35 as opposed to the normal one of 1:25. HANNA ZIADY: There we go. Thanks to Chris van der Merwe of Curro. From: http://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb-radio/curro-is-doing-great-things-in-the- education-space/ Business Day: http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/education/2016/02/24/curro-aims-for-its-six th-rights-issue IOL: http://www.iol.co.za/business/companies/curro-plans-on-r1bn-to-expand-198887 8 Sunday Times: http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/businesstimes/2016/02/23/Curro-seeks- to-raise-R1-billion-to-fund-new-schools All: Google News <https://news.google.com/news/story?ncl=dNUFHiSPozIidKM386LAlAlGQ4dZM&q=Curr o&lr=English&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwim78De74_LAhVKnBoKHcEKB20QqgIIJDAA> -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. 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