Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Sustainable Development Goal 4
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. However, 617 million children worldwide are not meeting basic proficiency levels in reading and mathematics—or are not in school at all. When children lack good education, it perpetuates poverty and global inequality, generation after generation.
- 1 in 3 children in low-income countries don't complete their primary education
- 59.1 million primary school age children were not in school in 2018
- 28% of girls in low-income countries cannot read or write
To end extreme poverty tomorrow, we must educate children today.
Opportunity's Education Finance (EduFinance) program partners with financial institutions to help independent local schools provide affordable, quality education. At the same time, it helps parents access the resources necessary to send their children to school. 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.
About EduFinance
Lending for Education
Through partnerships with local financial institutions, we provide industry-leading lending products like School Improvement Loans, which help affordable private schools build more classrooms, and improve infrastructure and security, and School Fee Loans, which help parents cover school fees when they are due, preventing dropout and increasing classroom time for students.
Learn More about Lending for Education
Education Quality
In addition to these financial products, our EduQuality program works with over 1,600 schools to improve the quality of teaching and learning conditions for students. We facilitate collaboration and knowledge-sharing through School Clusters—groups of teachers and school leaders who share best practices and learn from one another. We support schools' ongoing development planning through Pathways to Excellence (P2E)—a guide that helps proprietors evaluate and improve their schools. And we provide extensive School Leadership Professional Development training to senior school staff to improve their instructional and management.
Data, Business Intelligence, and Evaluation
EduFinance is a data-driven program that relies on constant monitoring and evaluation to iterate and improve the products and programs we offer financial institutions, schools, and families. Through frequent and rigorous analysis, we are able to identify key areas of success, points for improvement, and new possibilities to better serve families.
Learn More about Data and Evalutation
Meet Charles Mugerwa and the Top Care Junior School
Charles Mugerwa taught 24 children when he started the Top Care Junior School in Kampala, Uganda, in 2005. He chose the name because of what it meant—that his students would be able to learn in the best facilities, his teachers would be paid and trained well, and the community would be proud and excited to send their children to a good school.
Over the years, Charles has made dozens of improvements and expansions, including using several Opportunity School Improvement Loans to build new classrooms and dormitories. Reflecting upon his growth, Charles shared: "Without Opportunity we would have been stuck. Opportunity helped me build more classrooms, and as a result, the pupils sit comfortably." As a result, his enrollment grew from 24 students to more than 890.
Charles has a special focus on helping girls stay in school, which is one of his biggest priorities for his own three daughters. He knows that families in his communities struggle to pay school fees, but Charles says: "I do what I can to keep them in school. I have that heart that I need pupils to learn and stay in school."