Briefing | Low-cost private schools

Learning unleashed

Where governments are failing to provide youngsters with a decent education, the private sector is stepping in

|DELHI, ISLAMABAD, LAGOS AND MEXICO CITY

THE Ken Ade Private School is not much to look at. Its classrooms are corrugated tin shacks scattered through the stinking streets of Makoko, Lagos’s best-known slum, two grades to a room. The windows are glassless; the light sockets without bulbs. The ceiling fans are still. But by mid-morning deafening chants rise above the mess, as teachers lead gingham-clad pupils in educational games and dance. Chalk-boards spell out the A-B-Cs for the day. A smart, two-storey government school looms over its ramshackle private neighbour. Its children sit twiddling their thumbs. The teachers have not shown up.

This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Learning unleashed”

The $1-a-week school

From the August 1st 2015 edition

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