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Schools Funded By Gates and Zuckerberg Ordered Closed In Uganda (cnn.com)
Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are two investors in Bridge International Academies. But in Uganda, the group's 63 schools have been "ordered to shut down in a matter of weeks, leaving the lives of thousands of pupils in limbo." An anonymous reader quotes CNN:
Uganda's High Court has described the Bridge International Academies...as unsanitary and unqualified, and has ordered it to close its doors in December because it ignored Uganda's national standards and put the "life and safety" of its 12,000 young students on the line. The Director of Education Standards for the Ministry, Huzaifa Mutazindwa, told CNN that the nursery and primary schools were not licensed, the teachers weren't qualified and that there was no record of its curriculum being approved.
Bridge's Uganda director denies the allegations, says the government hasn't even granted them an audience, and "suggested that the opposition against BIA was because the campuses competed against local state-run and private schools," according to CNN. Their reporter also found two educator advocates who complained that Bridge's schools were actually a privatized, profit-making entity targeting the poor. There's strong arguments on both sides, but it's all raising a lot of questions about how technology should be used in school programs, as well as how they should be funded.
Bridge's Uganda director denies the allegations, says the government hasn't even granted them an audience, and "suggested that the opposition against BIA was because the campuses competed against local state-run and private schools," according to CNN. Their reporter also found two educator advocates who complained that Bridge's schools were actually a privatized, profit-making entity targeting the poor. There's strong arguments on both sides, but it's all raising a lot of questions about how technology should be used in school programs, as well as how they should be funded.
No, there are not "strong arguments on both sides". One side is corrupt and lying. Either the local administration of the schools are skimming funds and creating the hazardous unqualified schools as described, or the government agency is lying because they demanded bribes and were refused. This is not a "both sides have a point" kind of situation, and actual journalism would require digging in and finding the truth.
It doesn't surprise me unite4education is a teachers lobby masquerading as an organization that gives a shit about education. Those types hate change and competition.
Would the world one day get tired that Africa looks hopeless and let it go their way? It always looks like their priorities are something totally unrelated to what the world perceives as should be their "needs".
This is no bait nor trolling in any way, no need for AC, just want to know: if you donate like me, what do this kind of news make you think?
Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have plenty of problems to solve in their own country.
I prefer that they focus on Africa, rather than trying to "fix" America.
Why are they looking for trouble half a world away?
They just failed to bribe the right people.