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Where Science, Schools, and Social Entrepreneurship Meet
In a small workshop, hidden away on Pune’s NDA road, a demonstration is under way. A supervisor draws diagrams on a white-board, watched closely by a group of four or five employees. Shelves line the walls, displaying a variety of science models on bases made of black acrylic fibre; more acrylic sheets are stacked to one side; a DC motor vies for space with a conductivity tester, a beam balance and a large yellow plastic ball (intended to explain how the human retina functions). All told, this workshop produces 81 such models, covering around 540 concepts of science for students from the third to the tenth grade.
- Categories
- Education, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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As Uganda’s education system struggles, for-profit schools become flashpoint
In Prossy Nsereko’s cramped office, the writing is literally on the wall. One side is covered with peppy, hand-written slogans: "Winners never quit." "We are what we believe we are." On the other is a list of school fees.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Indian social enterprises have huge potential: British Council report
A majority (53%) of social enterprises in India are focussed on skill development, followed by 30% on education, according to a study on Indian social enterprises relased by the British Council on Thursday.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education
- Region
- South Asia
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Social Business Roundup: My Ivory Tower or Yours? Will Cash-strapped Pensions Turn Back to ‘Sin Stocks’?
In the weekly roundup, the CEO of the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) in London says universities shouldn’t teach social entrepreneurship because they aren’t accessible to all; namely, poor people who are often best positioned to help solve social problems in their own neighborhoods. But there's a flaw in his logic. And on Monday, CalPERS, the U.S.'s largest public pension fund, will meet to decide whether to end its 16-year-old policy of divesting from tobacco stocks. Is the tide starting to turn against ESG investments among public pension funds?
- Categories
- Education, Investing, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing
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How an Indian Comic Book Is Teaching Girls About Their Periods
When Aditi Gupta got her first period, aged 12, everyone told her to keep it a secret. Even her closest family members in her native India couldn’t know. She was forbidden from worshipping at her temple while she was menstruating, and instead of sanitary products used rags that caused her to have rashes.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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What Went Wrong for Bridge Academies in Uganda?
Uganda’s Ministry of Education is set to shutter the 63 schools run by Bridge International Academies, whose pioneering model for low-cost, private education has drawn significant attention — and investments — from major international players, including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.
- Categories
- Education
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Weekly Roundup: Romanticizing Castro, Bridge’s Troubled Waters and the Benefits of Cash
NB's Weekly Roundup makes the call on whether Cuba's high quality of health care justified Castro’s means of achieving it; ponders the future of a private education company under attack from public sector foes; helps debunk the assumption that poor people, when given cash, will squander it on cigarettes and alcohol; and brings up the possibility that data, as it relates to public health, is a business opportunity.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care, Technology
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Kenya Promises Crackdown As Teachers Push for Ban on UK-Backed Private Schools
Kenya promised on Monday to crack down on schools operating illegally after teachers called for a ban on a chain of low-cost private schools backed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
- Categories
- Education
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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