Our approach

ARK's guiding principle is that governments should fund free education for all, but not necessarily deliver it. We believe the involvement of non-state organisations is an essential mechanism for rapidly expanding the state provision and quality of secondary education.

The advantages of public-private partnership - such as greater autonomy for schools, strong accountability and more efficient management - mean that children can learn effective and relevant skills, at lower cost. The increased competition may also help drive up standards in government schools. Based on our research, partnership working with governments could have a major impact on the provision of education in Africa.

Secondary education: overlooked and under-funded

While primary school enrolment in Sub-Saharan Africa is at a historic high, a significant proportion of children never go on to secondary school, leaving them woefully ill equipped for future employment. Only 28% of Ugandan secondary age children are enrolled in secondary school. In addition, there are fewer non-government organisations and donors supporting secondary education. Clearly, there is a gap to be filled.

Why Uganda?

We are testing our public-private partnership education model in Uganda as the government is committed to increasing access to secondary schooling and already allows non-state organisations to deliver public education. We believe our programme could act as a catalyst for similar initiatives elsewhere in the region.

Uganda and the Ivory Coast are currently the only countries in sub-Saharan Africa to have introduced a government policy for this particular public-private partnership in education - the very model we will be rolling out.
Unlike the Ivory Coast which only very recently averted civil war, Uganda has found stability in the last decade.

Economic reforms and the introduction of a multi-party political system have fostered a progressive environment and rapid economic growth.

In this programme we are drawing on our experience of running eleven schools in the UK and the expertise of our partner PEAS (Promoting Equality in African Schools), a social enterprise wich runs a rapidly growing network of public-private partnership secondary schools in Africa.