BIA launches global campaign for underprivileged

By Amaka Abayomi

BRIDGE International Academies, BIA, has embarked on a global campaign to give voice to parents, teachers, pupils in Africa and India who live in some of the poorest communities in the world.

The campaign, which is riding on the back of a recent report that, globally, 263 million children and young adults are out of school, of which 61 million are primary school aged children, while nine million of this number reside in Nigeria.

According to BIA’s co-founder, Dr. Shannon May, “We are happy to launch this new global educational campaign aimed at giving voices and educational rights to the underprivileged children all around the world. The voices of those who are directly impacted by poor education, absent teachers and failing schools are rarely heard. These films are designed to empower BIA parents, teachers and children and make their voices heard.

“Too often, debates about education in Africa or India are dominated by those from the West, with little space for mothers and fathers and teachers on the education front lines. We want to change that.”

May pointed out that BIA launched the public awareness initiative to draw attention to the need for high-quality affordable education options for the underprivileged children worldwide, adding “there are estimated 330 million children who are in school, but not learning. The most recent official estimate puts the global shortage of teachers at 69 million. As a whole system and school intervention agency, Bridge runs schools in struggling communities including the notorious Nairobi Matabre slum, the Nigerian slum Alimosho, the Al-Shabaab territory in northeast Kenya, the impoverished regions of eastern India and across places once torn apart by Ebola and civil war in Liberia.”

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