Schools minister Lord Nash invited the controversial Bridge International Academies into the Department for Education to discuss its low-cost model of education, TES can reveal.
Last year’s meeting has been confirmed by the American for-profit company. Co-founder Shannon May told TES that the firm had been “asked by various parties” to open schools in the UK.
Bridge International currently educates more than 100,000 children in over 400 nursery and primary schools in India, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Uganda, but it has ambitious expansion plans.
Ms May told TES that Lord Nash “asked us to meet with him to understand better the situation in the UK”. Bridge uses smartphones and tablets to allow staff to give identical, scripted lessons, with data being sent back to the US for analysis to ensure the teachers are turning up and delivering the classes, and to check how children are learning.
‘Unqualified’ teachers
The company says its pupils perform better than those in neighbouring schools, but it has angered teaching unions. Last year, Uganda’s high court ordered the closure of all Bridge schools, citing unsanitary learning conditions and unqualified teachers. Bridge disputes these claims, and is awaiting a final ruling.
A Bridge International spokesperson said: “Lord Nash and Shannon May met last year to discuss the innovative Bridge funding model and strategy to target under-served communities. Shannon talked about how the Bridge model could be useful for exploring ways to improve education delivery in countries around the world.”
The Bridge model is described as a delivery mechanism that “drives enormous efficiencies” in “overhead costs”.
Asked by TES whether Bridge would move into the UK, Ms May said it had been asked to open schools by “various parties” in the UK and US but had decided to instead “focus on where the greatest need is”. “I think it’s really important to us to continue to focus on truly marginalised populations,” she said.
The DfE declined to comment on what it said was a private meeting.
@geomr
