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PO Box A524
Sydney South NSW 1235, Level 11, 227 Elizabeth Street Sydney NSW 2000

Telephone: 1800 812 164

© 2024 Opportunity International AustraliaABN 83 003 805 043

Your impact
through education

Download Education Report

Thanks to your support, 75,589 families are using loans to educate their children in India. 

Latest Report: March 2020

Your support is driving sustainable change as Opportunity Global works with financial institutions to provide loans to low-fee community schools for improvements and to parents to cover the cost of schooling for their children. This program is helping school leaders, parents and students to overcome one of the most prevalent obstacles families living in poverty face – access to quality education for their children. In areas where even the most basic education requires upfront fee payment, this support is crucial.

The financial institutions’ suite of Education Finance (EduFinance) products ease the pressure of school fees for parents and help school leaders invest in school upgrades. With access to loans, low-fee community schools can access new technology or build better facilities to enhance the learning experience. Along with investing in infrastructure, schools in Opportunity’s Education Quality (EduQuality) program are equipped with the knowledge and support to systematically improve the quality of education they offer.

Learn how our education program works

75,589
families using loans
to educate their children in India
4,739
schools and tertiary institutions
using loans to make improvements in India
1,814
schools using loans
to make improvements in Pakistan

Data to December 2019

Highlights

Opportunity’s partners in EduFinance currently have 80,330 active loans in India. This includes both 75,589 school fee loans and two tertiary tuition loans, as well as 359 tertiary institutions and 4,380 schools with improvement loans, offered through long-standing program partner ESAF as well as more recent partners, Indian School Finance Company (ISFC) and Shiksha. School improvement loans are used to build more classrooms to accommodate more students, as well as other assets such as desks, chairs, computers and projectors.

EduFinance has now benefitted approximately 1.3 million children in India, helping these families break the cycle of poverty through education. Our cumulative child impact in India has grown rapidly in the past six months, with an additional estimated 260,000 children now benefitting.

Lessons

While demand for education loans has grown rapidly, the uptake of the complementing EduQuality program has been slower, with only nine affordable schools in India participating. Finding ways to reduce the cost of the EduQuality program may increase the uptake.

Pilots are underway in Ghana to trial the digital delivery of the core components of the EduQuality program, including completing school quality assessments, creating school development plans, and delivering content such as policy templates, teaching resources and teacher training. Delivering EduQuality program through technology has the potential to reduce the costs of improving conditions for learning in schools and maintaining the quality of the program at scale. Digital delivery of the EduQuality program opens new opportunities to support schools in hard-to-reach contexts.

Highlights

Pakistan has one of the highest rates of unschooled primary-aged children. To combat this, Opportunity worked with financial institutions SAFCO and Kashf in 2019 to begin EduFinance programs in Pakistan. Through this collaboration, 1,814 schools are using loans to make improvements so more children can access better education. 

It is estimated that these schools cater to approximately 250,000 Pakistani school children. The school improvement loans are used to build classrooms, toilets, and dormitories, as well as to buy school buses to make it easier for school children to get to school. 

Market research into the affordable private school sector in Pakistan showed there was strong demand for training (e.g. in administration set up, financial management, teaching best-practices) provided alongside the school improvement loan. This demand is reflected in the uptake of the EduQuality program by 127 schools across Lahore, Gujranwala and Faisalabad.

Lessons

According to a 2019 UNESCO report, the world is off-target to reach SDG 4 – ‘to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all’ by 2030. Children are still being excluded and many are still dropping out, and it is projected that by 2030 at this rate, 40 per cent of young people will not complete high school and most of these will be from the poorest families. EduFinance and EduQuality aims to increase access to quality education for families living in poverty to accelerate progress towards achieving SDG 4.   

Education Partner Summary, Asia

 Number of loans outstanding by typeValue of loans outstanding by type ($US)
ISFC (India)  2,724 school improvement
359 tertiary institution improvement
 $48,089,369
$14,975,905
ESAF (India) 39,203 school fee
2 tertiary tuition
1 school improvement
 $11,501,343
$61,973
$39,364
Shiksha (India)  36,386 school fee
1,655 school improvement
 $9,589,146
$14,870,864
SAFCO (Pakistan)  40 school improvement  $44,336
KASHF (Pakistan)  1,774 school improvement  $1,599,127
Overall82,144$100,771,427

 

 Download report as PDF

view previous reports

October 2019 Report

March 2019 Report

Impact Stories

Your support is empowering these women—and millions more like them—to create a new future for their families, free from poverty.

"I spend everything on my daughters’ education."
– Sindhu, Nagpur

Sindhu and Sikkander knew they wanted to educate all of their five daughters, no matter what the cost. Taking out yearly school fee loans made this education possible.

MEET SINDHU

"Starting this school was my dream."
– Sapna, Gorewada

Growing up, Sapna knew that, by attending school, she was more fortunate than most. As an adult—and now school Principal—she is dermined to give every child that opportunity.

MEET SAPNA

"My daughter came first in the whole school!"
– Madhuri, Nagpur

Madhuri used to worry about how they would afford school fees for her children, Ria (4) and Yesh (5). Thanks to a school fee loan, she doesn’t worry about that any longer.

MEET MADHURI

A quality education will increase a child’s chance of living free from poverty. But it also means a child will lead a healthier life, writes Opportunity’s Program Officer, Taylor Deacon-King.

READ MORE

See more of your impact

View all Impact Reports