Quartz – Lee Middleton
“African countries are struggling to find science and math teachers – like everywhere else. But unlike everywhere else, massive youth populations and already lean budgets pose big challenges to governments tackling the education system generally, and math and science education in particular. Enter the go-to solution invoked for every problem in Africa from transport networks to broadband access: public private partnerships or PPPs. “We should think about how the private sector can enter schools, bring the lab at IBM to the classroom,” says Njideka Harry, CEO of the Youth for Technology Foundation. Sitting on the “Future of Technology” panel at this month’s World Economic Forum Africa Summit, Harry’s emphasis on PPPs was in keeping with the take-home message from a forum full of sessions like “Transforming Education” and “Harnessing Africa’s Biggest Resource.” For cash-strapped governments facing a demographic reality where half the population is under 30, and a third are under 13, calling in the cavalry makes sense. But in handing education over to the private sector, is there not a risk of creating a 21st century version of the Victorian education model intended to churn out the labor that kept the factories of the Industrial Revolution humming? Perhaps. But on a continent where 60% of the unemployed are young people, there is an upside to an education that actually leads to employment.”(more)