Category Archives: private sector
The Partnership Schools for Liberia: A critical analysis
By Steven J. Klees, University of Maryland To experiment with the possible privatization of its primary education system, Liberia initiated the Partnership Schools of Liberia (PSL), which turned over the management of 93 public schools to eight private contractors. This … Continue reading
What matters for education reform? Lessons from the Partnership Schools for Liberia experiment and beyond
Engaging the private sector to overcome the learning crisis is all the rage in global education. This is giving rise to heated debates, as evident from responses to a paper just published on Liberia’s high-profile ‘Partnership Schools for Liberia’ (PSL) … Continue reading
Liberia’s children deserve the best education
By: Dr. Saaim W. Naame, Dean of Education at the University of Liberia. Over the last twenty years, the people of Africa’s first modern republic, Liberia, have been through two civil wars and a major virus epidemic. The wars caused … Continue reading
Partnerships with non-state providers need to be approached with caution
By Alina Lipcan and Ian MacAuslan Low levels of learning globally make for one of the most sobering statistics in education. In 12 out of 13 countries in South-Eastern Africa, fewer than 40% of students had mastered basic numeracy and basic … Continue reading
In Liberia, a town struggles to adjust to its new charter school
By Ashoka Mukpo, journalist When the community of Kollita Wolah built their schoolhouse in 1989, it was a proud moment. Located a few kilometers to the north of Gbarnga, a bustling hub city in central Liberia, residents of the town … Continue reading
Evaluating Liberia’s private school partners: why policy decisions must be based on more than numbers
By Stuart Cameron, Senior Education Consultant at Oxford Policy Management. ‘Partnership Schools for Liberia’ (PSL) is a hot topic in education policy circles. A pilot programme outsourcing control of government primary schools to eight private providers, it has attracted considerable … Continue reading
Education needs to fundamentally change if we are to reach our global development goals
The new Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report by UNESCO, released this morning, shows the vast potential for education to propel progress towards all global goals outlined in the new Sustainable Development Agenda (SDGs). But, if education is to fulfill that … Continue reading