IFC’s Sh1.4bn for Bridge schools probed

The International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Sh1.39 billion ($13.5 million) investment in Bridge International Academies is now being investigated after civil society group raised concerns over the deal.

Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), the body tasked with resolving disputes between the IFC and local communities negatively impacted by projects it supports, says it has opened a probe over the level of due diligence made before cash was pumped into the for-profit school chain.

Kenyan civil society group East African Centre for Human Rights (EACHRights) had last year April complained to CAO that the low-cost chain of schools was in breach of Kenyan labour standards, health and safety requirements, and national education regulations.

“CAO notes IFC efforts during supervision to assess and address concerns about sanitation at Bridge schools and more recently, to review labour and working conditions,” said the watchdog in a preliminary review.

“However, CAO concludes that there are substantial concerns regarding the environmental and social (E&S) outcomes of IFC’s investment in Bridge.”

At the time of IFC’s investment, Bridge – which has disputed these accusations – owned 211 schools in Kenya serving over 57,000 students.

By December last year, the company operated 297 schools in Kenya.

The complainants, who include anonymous parents and teachers, also allege that Bridge provides false or misleading information about the costs of attending the school and that it puts excessive pressure on teachers to market it.

The final report is due by September 2020 and will establish whether IFC carried out proper due diligence and supervision regarding its investment in the school chain, first made in 2014.

Bridge’s other high-profile investors include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Omidyar Network and CDC, the UK development finance institution.

IFC disclosures say that Bridge aims to provide quality education to children from families earning less than Sh200 per person per day but there has been split opinion over affordability of school fees.

But critics, including Oxfam, have questioned the move by the World Bank’s financing arm, saying funding profit-driven education ventures serve to increase inequality in poor communities which Bridge specifically targets.

Bridge, which was founded by Dr Shannon May and Jay Kimmelman in 2008, has faced strong opposition from teachers unions and civil society groups in Kenya over practices such as using low-cost labour and hiring untrained teachers to run its primary and nursery schools.

Avoiding costly labour is one of strategies used by Bridge to ensure its education services remain affordable to slum residents.

In 2017, a report by British MPs acknowledged that Bridge – which is partly funded by UK aid funds – said inspectors who visited its schools in Uganda reported that children were being taught in “substandard facilities and unsanitary conditions”.