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Paying for School: Six Insights for Better Financial Services
The inability to pay fees and other education expenses keeps many children out of school. What is the extent of these challenges, who is affected and what kinds of financial services could help? These questions are explored here by Michelle Kaffenberger and Lauren Braniff, and in a new CGAP publication, “Digital Finance and Innovations in Financing for Education.”
- Categories
- Education
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EdTech Startups are Flashy, But Teacher Relationships Remain Critical
In this Q&A, Amy Ahearn and Santiago Melo of Acumen explain how the use of education technology, or "edtech," is evolving in emerging markets. For one thing, it's become obvious that in addition to building technology, organizations that hope to reach scale must also build relationships with teachers, and approach districts and governments as customers.
- Categories
- Education
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Social Business Roundup: Laureate Education Goes Big, Omidyar Gives Directly, Surdna Foundation Embraces Impact Investing
In social business news this week, the world's biggest for-profit college company raised $490 million in its public debut, Omidyar Network gave a $493,000 grant to support GiveDirectly's mission of sending unconditional cash transfers to the poor, and the Surdna Foundation announced plans to dedicate 10 percent of its endowment ($100 million) to a new impact investing fund. Read about these developments and more in our news roundup.
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- Education, Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise
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The World’s Biggest For-Profit College Company, Laureate Education, Raises $490 Million In Public Debut
The largest for-profit college company on the planet raised $490 million in its public debut on Wednesday.
- Categories
- Education
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The Bridge International Controversy: Ignore ‘Fabricated Information’ – Bridge is Disrupting the Failing Status Quo
Bridge International Academies Co-Founder Shannon May, responding to criticism, says Bridge is out to change the status quo: "Our innovative model is proving that education can be delivered at a very low cost in the poorest parts of the world and, more than that, the level of education provided can be better than other alternatives."
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- Education, Social Enterprise
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The Bridge International Controversy: Bridge Schools ‘Undermine the Rule of Law, Transparency and Fundamental Rights’
The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is concerned about the direction Bridge International Academies is headed, says Sylvain Aubry, and those "concerns are based on real, substantiated, independent evidence that not only the Bridge business model may be shaky, but that Bridge schools could undermine ... the rule of law, transparency and fundamental rights."
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- Education, Social Enterprise
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Learning from (and About) India’s Emerging Digital Money Grid
The Indian government's experience in converting all its citizens onto a digital platform can help inform all digital finance professionals interested in financial inclusion models, according to Ignacio Mas and his team at the Digital Frontiers Institute. So they've collaborated with MicroSave to create a four-week online course, Digital Money Grid India, which they'll offer starting March 27.
- Categories
- Education
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Here’s Why Top Business Schools Are Appealing More to Socially Minded Millennials
If you’re a business school student, there’s a good chance you’re at least broadly familiar with the life of Andrew Carnegie. The Gilded Age robber baron casts a pretty long shadow... particularly in his model for the life of a businessman in America: a ruthless competitor in business who compromised nothing in his pursuit of profit, and a committed philanthropist in his private life, clearly segregating his desire to conquer the business landscape and to mold a better world. Carnegie had a clear and inspiring vision of a better society, but he opted to leave it entirely out of his life as a captain of industry.
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- Education