New Age2.png In India, as in Africa Private education firms grow fat from the poor Carol Anne Spreen and Sangeeta Kamat, The New Age, Johannesburg, 18 July 2016 Private for-profit multinational corporations are making billions of dollars by charging poor families around the world to send their children to school. At the same time, governments have been shirking their obligations to provide quality public schooling by diverting significant funds to private sector actors and inviting them in to run large segments of the education system. If education is a fundamental human right, why should the world's poor be paying billions to multinational corporations for their education? With nearly 200 million pupils in school this sector, from the profit-driven perspective of edu-businesses, represents a vast untapped market estimated at $110bn (R1.61 trillion). Pearson, Bridge Multinational corporations like Pearson, along with international chains like Bridge International Academies, have encouraged privatisation of the school sector in India through the promotion of private school chains, vouchers and public-private partnerships, especially targeting low-income and working class communities. In the last few decades, government-funded schools have suffered from disinvestment and neglect, creating a mass exodus of working poor and middle class from public schools. While tremendous gains have been made in access and enrolment, this is clearly not enough. Corporate "solutions"? Schools have not been adequately resourced to handle the increasing school population, there is a teacher shortage, 47% of schools don't have functional girls' toilets and 26% don't have access to drinking water. The lack of political will to adequately finance, support and monitor the public education system has legitimated corporate "solutions" to the education crisis. The massive growth of low fee private schools is directly related to the government's failure to meet its constitutional responsibilities under the [Indian] Right to Education Act as well as its international obligations to provide free education as a fundamental human right. <https://counter-summit.wikispaces.com/file/view/Profiting%20from%20the%20Po or%20%28Research%20Book%29%2C%20EI%2C%20Spreen%20and%20others%2C%202016.pdf> EI.png Our report, published by Education International entitled <https://counter-summit.wikispaces.com/file/view/Profiting%20from%20the%20Po or%20%28Research%20Book%29%2C%20EI%2C%20Spreen%20and%20others%2C%202016.pdf> Profiting from the Poor: the Emergence of Multinational Edu-businesses in Hyderabad, India released this week, reveals a complex assemblage of global actors that are invested in the business of private education and who stand to make a considerable profit from it. We challenge the claims that private schooling for the poor can be profitable while simultaneously promising a quality education. Our research shows that, despite expectations, low-fee private schools have not delivered anything close to a quality education. Privatisation leads to increasing inequalities and social exclusion, as well as the deprofessionalisation of teachers. User fees in education undermine the right to education, exacerbating inequality and contributing to social stratification. Free right to quality Children have the right not only to a free public education, but also to a quality education, in schools that are adequately resourced and with teachers who are professionally trained. The Indian Right to Education Act (2010) underscores the right to free and compulsory education for children between six and 14. Yet, only 10% of schools are in compliance with the Act. Adequate funding and better provisioning of the public education sector is desperately needed. Children who attend private schools already have a wide social advantage over their public school peers, further discriminating against the poor. The low-fee private school explosion is rightly criticised for creating a multi-layered, inferior school system exacerbating inequality in a country where nearly 40% of the population live below the poverty line and could not afford even the cheapest low-fee private schools. Cost-cutting The assumption that low-fee private schools are "better" must also be called into question. Most low-fee private schools fail to meet most universal standards of quality education. They use cost-cutting approaches such as low-paid and unqualified teachers; they operate in sub-standard and inadequate facilities in rented buildings; they rely on narrow, standardized and replicable scripted learning materials that are not linguistically or culturally appropriate,; and, they rely heavily on technology for teaching, learning and staff training, encouraging rapid reach and leveraging costs over deep learning. Research on learning outcomes is also mixed - few studies of low-fee schools control for socio-economic differences between students that can greatly affect learning outcomes. Celebrities A key reason why for-profit schools are on the rise and receiving billions annually from governments and poor families, is that international power players, local politicians, lawyers, business leaders, and celebrities have been willing to vouch for these companies, serving as their paid lobbyists, board members, investors, and endorsers. It requires a <https://www.unite4education.org/> Global Response to fight against private interests of this most critical public good. . Carol Anne Spreen is at New York University and Sangeeta Kamat at the University of Massachusettes, Amherst . To download the original, longer version of this article, <https://counter-summit.wikispaces.com/file/view/Privatisation%20Undermines% 2C%20article%2C%20Spreen%2C%202016.docx> please click here. . For a site dedicated to this issue, go to <https://www.unite4education.org/> https://www.unite4education.org/ . To download the full, 115-page report (PDF), <https://counter-summit.wikispaces.com/file/view/Profiting%20from%20the%20Po or%20%28Research%20Book%29%2C%20EI%2C%20Spreen%20and%20others%2C%202016.pdf> click here. 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