Education Finance
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Nelson Mandela
To end extreme poverty tomorrow, we must educate children today.
Atlas Credit’s Education Finance (EduFinance) program increases the ability of independent non-state local schools to provide affordable, quality education. At the same time, it helps parents access the resources necessary to send their children to those schools. By connecting private sector finance to education providers in low- and middle-income countries, we are tackling the global education crisis and helping more children attend better schools.
School Improvement Loans
School Improvement Loans set the stage for rapid and sustainable school improvement, ensuring more students gain access to a better education. These loans are used by school owners to invest in their schools’ most pressing needs.
School owners use School Improvement Loans for:
- Infrastructure and expansion, like building new classrooms, bathrooms, or dormitories—all of which are especially important to improve attendance and enrollment, especially for girls
- Improving educational provisions by hiring new teachers to reduce class sizes, or purchasing textbooks, classroom supplies, desks, or computers
- Enhancing health and safety by adding metal roofs, concrete floors, security fencing, and wells, piping, or filtration systems for clean water
School Fee Loans
School Fee Loans help parents who earn irregular or seasonal incomes keep their children in school year-round. A lack of cash at the beginning of the school term often results in a child not enrolling or being pulled out of school. School Fee Loans ease the pressure of upfront educational costs, effectively spreading out the costs of children’s education. These loans prevent school dropouts or missed classes during times of household financial uncertainty, when parents may struggle to pay for school fees, uniforms, materials, or transportation.
School Fee Loans help:
- Students stay in school. Even when students attend free public schools, parents must pay for expenses such as transportation, uniforms, food, and classroom materials. When families are unable to cover the costs, children skip a term or drop out.
- Girls go to school. When money is tight, parents will often choose to send their sons to school before their daughters.
- Students improve their learning. When students can’t attend school consistently, they have trouble progressing through the curriculum and keeping up with their studies.
DID YOU KNOW???
Research shows that giving children access to good education reduces poverty and inequality, increases life expectancy, and gives women and girls more decision-making power. When children lack good education, it perpetuates poverty and global inequality, generation after generation.