Education

Rationale

The role of education in promoting economic growth and social justice has long been recognized. For instance, one year of primary schooling boosts wages by 5% to 15%, while each year of secondary school increases wages by up to 25%.17 The education sector is undergoing dramatic changes for a variety of reasons, such as the advent of new technologies (e.g., low-cost tablets); improved internet connectivity; rapid, localized content development; and increased interest of mobile telecom operators and data providers to engage customers more creatively and provide interactive learning solutions through technological applications.

Types of Investments

Investments might be made in the following areas:

• Increased access to education and educational content

• Improved educational materials, platforms, and content to instructors in underserved communities

• Technologies that lower the cost of vocational training, livelihood management, and economic resilience

• Platforms that dramatically enhance access to education for underserved populations

Sample Capital Allocation

Examples of direct investments include:

• Private debt investment in ICT 4 Development, which is providing mobile training centers in Kenya to educate more than 20,000 students on critical computer skills

• Private debt investment in Formative, which recently introduced a classroom tool for individualized student instruction and progress monitoring

• Few indirect (fund) investment opportunities exist today in education technology. As a result, it might be more feasible to seek direct investments in education technologies that are extensible to underserved communities and co-investment opportunities with other fund managers