Fulltext/ED536776.Pdf Bray, M., Adamson, B., & Mason, M

Master’s Degree Studies in International and Comparative Education —————————————————

A critical discourse analysis of public-private partnerships in education in Black Africa

A case of basic education in Liberia

Habib Ssenyonjo

August, 2020

Department of Education Abstract

With many countries in Black Africa immersed in external debts and yet others grappling with effects of civil wars and pandemics, social services such as basic education and primary health care pose challenges to them. To mitigate such shortcomings in the region, innovative ways to provide basic education are sought by the private sector. To meet the goals of education for all, national governments fall short of alternatives which gives rise to options like low fee private schools (LFPSs). But these innovative ways which are basically home-grown have got foreign competitors who provide the same basic education services. This thesis does not address the element of competition; rather it explores latest global changes that affect almost all aspects of social life – particularly basic education. This thesis looks at the public-private partnerships (PPPs) in education with low fee private schools (LFPSs) as one of the ‘innovative’ ways of providing basic education; this has had an effect of having entire basic education systems contracted out by national governments in the region. With weak public service systems, how can Black Africa implement PPPs with LFPSs? Using Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis – theory and method as well as operationalised space-times theory by Harvey (1990), this thesis probed PPPs with LFPSs in Liberia. The objectives were to understand the nature of educational reforms advocated in PPPs with LFPSs and to examine the kind of relationship between government and private sector service providers in PPPs with a view of locating the power within such relationships. Another objective was to probe how equitable and inclusive these basic education services provided by PPPs with LFPSs were. The study revealed that PPPs with LFPSs are implicated in denying access to the rural communities, limiting equitable and inclusive education to many social groups like the poor, girls and people with disabilities as well as seeming to undermine national and local governments due to power and ideology.

Key words: critical discourse analysis, Fairclough, LFPSs, PPPs, neoliberalism, ‘disaster capitalism’, Black Africa, basic education, structural adjustment programmes.

2 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of contents 3 List of abbreviations 6 List of tables 8 List of figures 8 List of appendices 8 List of maps 8 Acknowledgements 9 Chapter One: Introduction 10 1.1. Educational dilemma 10 1.2. Aims and objectives 13 1.3. Significance 13 1.4. Limitations 14 1.5. Structure of the study 15 Chapter two: Background 16 2.1. Evolution of education in Black Africa 16 2.2. The Black African debt crisis of the 1970s and its aftermath 16 2.3. Education in Black Africa today 19 2.4. A concise amplification of basic education in three countries 24 2.5. Context 25 2.5.1. Liberia 25 2.5.2. Uganda 26 Chapter three: Earlier research 29 3.1. Public-private partnership in education in developing countries 30 3.2. LFPSs in the provision of basic education in developing countries 33 Chapter four: Conceptual and theoretical framework 36 4.1. Harvey’s historical-geographical theory of space and time 36 4.2. Neoliberalism 38 4.3. ‘Disaster capitalism’ 39 4.4. Public-private partnerships 41 4.5. Low-fee private primary schools 42 4.6. Critical discourse analysis 42

3 Chapter five: Methodology 45 5.1. Critical discourse 45 5.2. Fairclough’s three-dimensional model 47 5.2.1. Text. 48 5.2.2. Discursive practice 50 5.2.3. Social practice 50 5.3. Harvey’s representation of time and space 51 5.4. Ontology and epistemology 52 5.5. Research strategy and design 53 5.6. Selection of materials 54 5.7. Criteria for assessing quality 55 5.8. Ethical considerations 55 Chapter six: Analysis and results 57 6.1. Government of Liberia-Bridge partnership: Concept note 57 6.1.1. Textual analysis 58 6.1.1.1. Modality 58 6.1.1.2. Nominalisation 60 6.1.1.3. Transivity 61 6.1.1.4. Space-times 63 6.1.2. Discursive practice 66 6.2. Memorandum of understanding between GOL and Bridge 70 6.2.1. Textual analysis 70 6.2.1.1. Modality 70 6.2.1.2. Nominalisation 72 6.2.1.3. Transivity 73 6.2.1.4. Space-times 74 6.2.2. Discursive practice 77 6.3. Why we are partnering to improve free public education 81 6.3.1. Textual analysis 81 6.3.1.1. Modality 81 6.3.1.2. Nominalisation 82 6.3.1.3. Transivity 83 6.3.1.4. Space-times 83

4 6.3.2. Discursive practice 87 Chapter seven: Discussion 91 7.1. Social practice analysis 91 7.1.1. Government of Liberia-Bridge partnership: Concept note 91 7.1.2. Memorandum of understanding between Liberia and Bridge 94 7.1.3. Why we are partnering to improve free public education 95 7.2. Educational challenges of PPPs with LFPSs and policy solutions 97 7.3. PPPs, LFPSs, ideology and power 97 7.4. Liberia and Uganda: A comparison of systems 101 7.5. Misgivings and mitigations 102 Chapter Eight: Concluding remarks 104 8.1. Conclusions 104 8.2. Areas for future research 106 Reference list 107 Appendix 114

5 List of abbreviations

ACS American Colonisation Society CDA critical discourse analysis CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women CIA Central Intelligence Agency DAC Development Assistance Committee DFID Department for International Development EFA education for all ESSP The Education and Sports Strategic Plan EU The European Union GDP gross domestic product GERs gross enrolment rates GOL Government of Liberia GPE Global Partnership for Education ICE International and Comparative Education IFC International Finance Corporation IMF International Monetary Fund IOs International organisations LEAP Liberian Education Advancement Programme LFPSs low fee private schools MoE Ministry of Education MoU Memorandum of Understanding NGOs non-government organisations NPM New Public Management OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development PPPs public-private partnerships

6 PRSPs poverty reduction strategy papers PSL Partnership Schools for Liberia SABER Systems Approach to Better Education Results SAPs structural adjustment programmes SDGs Sustainable Development Goals UN The United Nations UNESCO Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNICEF United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund UPE universal primary education US The United States USAID United States Agency for International Development

List of tables Table 1.1. Definition of four levels of progress in primary education 20 Table 1.2. Summary of themes under textual and discursive practice 90

List of figures Figure 1.1. Extracting surpluses from abroad 18 Figure.1.2. The flow of tribute into the US 19 Figure 1.3. Growth in access to primary education in 45 Black African countries 20 Figure1.4. Gross enrollment ratios of primary education, rural versus urban 23 Figure1.5. Evolution of government budget and share allocated to education 28 Figure 1.6. Fairclough’s three dimensional model48

List of maps Map 1.1. Duration of primary education cycles in Black Africa, by country 21

List of Appendix Concept note 114

8 Acknowledgments

First, I would like to register my utmost appreciation to the Swedish Institute for funding my studies for these two years in Sweden. I am exceptionally grateful to my supervisor Susanne Kreitz-Sandberg, who has guided me at every stage in my writing. The long hours on Zoom and exhaustive feedback through text made a difference to my thesis. And to you my colleagues in the Study Buddies group – Alex, Bogi, Irene, Merel and Sofia, I must say that you have made my life amazingly comfortable in Stockholm. Alex and Merel, I appreciate the profound critical feedback to my work especially in summer. Sofia and Irene - you two ladies, I appreciate every bit of your support throughout the writing of this thesis. It is because of you, Study Buddies, that I did not miss Uganda and Black Africa that much! I would like to thank Husna, my teenage daughter back in Uganda for all the encouraging messages. I thank my Ugandan PhD student Innocent, for all the support, care and love during these two years in Stockholm. Last, I thank my angelic land lady, Agnieszka for the motherly care and for providing me a nice reading atmosphere.

Chapter One: Introduction 1.1 Educational dilemma As a little boy in the 1980s, I would foot a total of sixteen kilometers to attend primary education in a government school in an urbanized district area in Central Uganda. Born to a poor family of a semi-illiterate father and an illiterate mother, I would make the daily trek together with the great many village children of similar backgrounds who attended other similar urban government primary schools. Without shoes nor back-packs and amid the 1981–86 civil war, we would excel in our weekly tests like our counterparts in the Capital City schools just as we would in the national terminal examinations – the Primary Leaving Examinations. I was part of those children determined to break the vicious circle of illiteracy and poverty through education. Now as a high school teacher in one of the top six schools in the nation, I have noticed over the years the shifting neoliberal time zones in my country. Today all the popular primary schools of the 1980s in the Capital City cannot send any child to my school. They just cannot compete with private schools in the current neoliberal time zone. And neither now can such children of my background back in the villages and elsewhere disentangle themselves from the social class in which they have been born; theirs is an immutable lower social class the current public education may not alter. Neither will they easily join any good secondary school nor attain university education as I did. And rarely will they get any chance I have got to attend one of the top 100 universities in the world. Such children are now part of the statistics of a destroyed public primary education system in the world today. Many of them are part of the 254.4 million children, adolescents and youth at primary, lower and upper secondary levels respectively that were out of school globally in 2018. 97.5 million of this number were from Black Africa1, 52 million of whom were females (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation [UNESCO], 2019a) – and they were part of these statistics too. They are part of the UNESCO data of 32 million out-of-school primary age children living in Black Africa. They are part of the endless dismal statistics of the ever declining public education system. Black Africa’s problems come in tons; across this region, four million girls will never have chance of attending school as compared to 2 million boys. Of the 32 million children of ages between 6 and 11 in the region, 46 percent will start school at a later age but a fifth will remain entirely locked out of the formal schooling system (UNESCO, 2019b). The World Bank puts the out-of-school rates in the region at 24 percent for primary and lower secondary combined. Liberia and Niger have the highest out-of-school rates at 61 and 51 respectively (Bashir, Lockheed, Ninan & Tan, 2018). The preceding data are antithetical to the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda, notably Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4 and 5. Goal 4 enjoins countries to “[e]nsure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (UNESCO, 2019b). By 2030, target 4.1 of this goal enjoins all countries to “ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes” (UNESCO, 2019b, p.2). Goal 5 enjoins all countries to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; target 5(c) encourages states to “adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women

1 In this thesis Black Africa refers to the 48 countries categorized as Sub-Saharan Africa by the World Bank. Black Africa comprises those countries south of the Sahara; it does not include North Africa. This thesis avoids the use of Sub-Sahara Africa due to its negative connotations. 10

and girls at all levels.”2 The universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 26 section (1) partly states: “[e]veryone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory” (United Nations [UN] Assembly, 1948). Yet the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Article 28 section 1 (a) and (b) proclaim: “[s]tate parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular: (a) make primary education compulsory and available free to all; (b) encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, make them available and accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need” (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund [UNICEF], 1989). To stress the importance of education, the International Covenant on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Article 13 calls upon states to recognize everyone’s right to education. To realize this right, section 2 of this article instructs state parties to ensure that primary education is compulsory and available free to all children (Programme on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 2015). To elevate the status of women, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Article 10 calls upon countries to have measures that eliminate discrimination against women and promote equal rights between either sex. Section (f) of this article recommends for the reduction of female student drop-out rates and putting in place programmes that help girls and women who have left school prematurely (UN, 2014). Notwithstanding the above conventions and articles therein, Black Africa still faces a plethora of educational problems related to access, equity, quality, attainment, equality and so forth. Blame is laid on national governments for the predicament in their respective education systems. The World Bank identifies gaps in quality basic education provision, financing, managing and supporting teachers and operation oversight (Bashir et al., 2018). Be that as it may, there are issues about the most appropriate interventions to the dismal education situation in Black Africa. Most international organizations like the World Bank, the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) emphasise that the private sector should partner with national governments to improve public education yet it is a vital SDG. Their view is that governments in developing countries should not be main providers of education (Patrinos et al., 2009; Curtis, 2015); this is very problematic given that education is a right and a public good. Private management of public is problematic both in the short and long run. The best option should be – in case of gaps in public education provision, donors and international agencies should provide funds and expertise to existing education systems. Investment in Public education, quality teacher training, robust education management systems and better accountability mechanisms should be the avenues to improve basic education services in the region (Mulbah &Johnson, 2019). This is because democratic accountability in public service delivery is simple by involving trade unions and ordinary people in the running of those services (Curtis, 2015). The general consensus among donor communities today on the improvement of education in Black Africa is through the involvement of the private sector (Patrinos et al., 2009; Bous & Farr, 2019). The World Bank (Curtis, 2015) – the biggest funder of education on the globe supports this initiative. DFID’s education position too calls for the engagement of partnerships on public-private

2 https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal5

spectrum and the promotion of low fee private schools (LFPSs) in developing countries (Education International, 2009). But there is controversy about the involvement of the private sector in the provision of education services. High quality education that is publically provided and universally accessible is the foundation of a society that cherishes equality and shuns discrimination and oppression (Curtis, 2015). On the contrary, private education turns this basic need into a commodity governed by the market logic (Ball & Youdell, 2008; Curtis, 2015). In the long run, access and quality is dependent on the amount of money a person has; this leads to discrimination and oppression in the future (Curtis, 2015). Therefore privately managed basic education needs further inquiry as it could be implicated in undermining SDG 4; in the same vein international institutions under-funding public services could be an ideologically inspired conspiracy (Miller & Gerson, 2008) to promote private education. This thesis explores the forces affecting basic education in Black Africa. Chiefly, the inquiry focuses on the latest global changes that affect almost all aspects of social life, in particular education. This is partly important due to the interconnectedness of global economies today. The inquiry also focuses on structural or institutional forces that directly and indirectly affect basic education in Black Africa. Some of the institutional forces in focus are those that promote public- private partnerships (PPPs) in education with low fee private schools (LFPSs). The incorporation of LFPSs in PPP frameworks is now being piloted and adopted in low income countries (Verger, Fontdevila, & Zancajo 2016). The international school chains involved in PPPs are also LFPSs that are providing private education services to rural, urban and semi-urban disadvantaged communities in Black Africa, but their services are wanting (Education International, 2009). As noted above, it is difficult to fully trust the private sector that it will do what is best; some will perform to their best, some will manipulate the good partnership relationship in a bid to get maximum profits with blatant disregard for the social costs and yet others will walk away when unpredictable problems emerge, passing on the cost to the public sector (Draxler, 2012). This thesis probes the nature of educational services provided under PPPs with LFPSs. The thesis probes whether under the PPPs model, the national governments in Black Africa, and Liberia in particular, have the capacity to ‘steer the boat’ and the private education service providers to ‘row the boat’. Liberia is chosen as a case in this thesis as it is the first Black African country to privatize its basic education yet the biggest private providers contracted had not previously worked in that country. The purpose for selecting Liberia is therefore to fully understand their educational challenges that necessitated the reforms. Ugandan context is used to inform my case since the two countries have some similar past in education and political systems. The biggest private provider contracted by Liberia provides private basic education services in Uganda.

1.2 Aims and objectives The aim of this thesis is to explore the kind of the proposed basic education services provided under PPPs with LFPSs, focusing on three documents: Concept note, Memorandum of Understanding and a press release by Bridge. It has the following objectives: a) To understand the nature of educational reforms advocated in PPPs with LFPSs. b) To identify the nature of the relationship between government and private sector bodies in PPPs and locate the power within these relationships. c) To identify the equity and inclusiveness in the basic education services provided by PPPs with LFPSs. To meet the above objectives, the following research questions have been formulated: a) To what educational challenges are PPPs with LFPSs promising policy solutions in Liberia? b) How are these challenges and solutions articulated in the documents? c) What discourse is constructed about basic education in Liberia in the documents?

1.3 Significance to the field of international and comparative education The aim of this thesis is to explore the kind of proposed basic education services provided under PPPs with LFPSs. Specifically this thesis attempts to understand the nature of educational reforms advocated in PPPs with LFPSs, probes the nature of the relationship between government and private sector bodies in PPPs and locate the power within these relationships, and attempts to identify the equity and inclusiveness in the basic education services provided by PPPs with LFPSs. Whilst PPPs became a global phenomenon since late the 1980s (Linder, 1999) as policy reforms in governance in sectors like health and energy, they only featured greatly in the field of education in 2009 in a World Bank report The Role and Impact of PPPs in Education (Patrinos et al., 2009). Moreover PPPs in education have not favoured low income countries owing to their low financial capacity (Robertson & Verger, 2012). This study explores PPPs in education in Black Africa specifically in the provision of basic primary education. However this global phenomenon is under researched in the context of Black Africa, especially where international LFPSs (international school chains) are contract schools with national governments. The only limited research is about international LFPSs as private schools. This thesis therefore intends find more insight about these schools in regard to nature of services they promise to deliver. PPP is one of the avenues through which the global North and global South relate in terms of international development programmes, specifically in matters of power asymmetries (Menashy, 2020). Earlier the Washington consensus had caused a crisis in the South economies in the mid- 1990s as recipients of aid were not fully engaged in development projects. Therefore, through PPPs, the global North and South solidarity was envisaged to be strengthened (Menashy, 2020). PPPs in education are supported by OECD and Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members as well as other donors as a means of engaging recipients of aid in their projects. But equally vital is the fact that PPPs are about Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17, also known as partnerships for the goals (Menashy, 2020). Menashy clarifies that goal 17 is a foundation of the 16 goals. This calls for solidarity as a starting point in which all the 16 goals are implemented, especially in developing

countries. Generally this goal seeks to globally strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise global partnership for sustainable development3. In the field of education, all the 16 goals can be achieved if free equitable quality education is provided. Specifically quality education (Goal 4) and gender equality (Goal 5) as well as reduced inequalities (Goal 10) may be achieved by providing holistic education. An educated population can avert hunger (Goal 2) and reduce poverty (Goal 1) by making use of the attained skills from schooling. Issues of access to quality education for the marginalized groups relate to poverty reduction (Goal 1) as income increases with the level of education4. The revitalization of all SDGs as Goal 17 tasks all countries is a good step, but one not without its own problems. Neoliberal educational reforms are implicated in undermining Goal 4, especially in the process of prioritising private education, yet PPPs are a measure to limit any injustices as envisaged by DAC. Inequalities in educational access and attainment may have a negative spiral effect on SDGs 1, 2, 5, 10 and 17. An uneducated population is susceptible to hunger, poverty, gender inequalities, increased inequalities and Goal 17 may have no effect in achieving unity in SDG implementation and let alone strengthening the global North and South solidarity envisaged by DAC. How can all these Goals be achieved through PPP with LFPSs in Black Africa? What avenues are available to ensure the SDGs are part and parcel of PPP with LFPSs in this region? Since education assistance is one of the major fields in which development aid is channeled, then this inquiry is significant to the field of ICE. The study is also relevant to ICE as it focuses on aspects of education and society, specifically educational finance and management options (Bray, Adamson & Mason, 2007). This thesis focuses on how national governments contract private providers of education with a claim to have value for money in education. The governments also share the responsibility of supervising the provision of those educational services. In short this inquiry is relevant to the field of ICE as PPPs in education majorly focus on finances and management of schools. My first research question probes the kind of educational challenges and solutions that are articulated in documents to improve primary education in Black Africa. This inquiry is significant to the field of ICE in as far as comparison at national level is concerned (geographical level) (Bray et al., 2007). Through earlier research and material analysis, displays of educational achievements and challenges in Black African countries are visible. This may be a good step as forces that shape educational systems and processes (Marhall, 2014) within Black African settings can be appreciated and some lessons emulated in the improvement of education systems.

1.4 Limitations The government of Liberia has many private providers of basic education services under Partnership Schools for Liberia (PSL), now Liberian Education Advancement Programme (LEAP). This study used data from three documents. Although these documents have plenty of information, they are related to only one private provider of basic educational services in Liberia. It is difficult to confirm or deny, for example that the contractual agreement between the government of Liberia and Bridge International is similar to other providers as they belong to one programme – PSL, now

3 https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal17 4 https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/strong-link-between-education-and-earnings 14

LEAP. This study therefore may be denied some vital information in other documents somewhere that are not accessible. Another limitation of the study is that the methods used to analyze data are highly language based. Given the fact that I am not a native speaker of English, some information may be perceived differently. To minimize this problem, I try to be reflective in the process of analysis. I also use a method of analysis which is very comprehensive. This is Fairclough’s three dimensional model which I complement with additional analytical tool, Harvey’s textual analysis of space-times (operationalised by Fairclough). This inquiry is not an empirical one; it is highly theoretical and it may not reflect any changes of reality in the field. The inquiry relies on public documents. However the documents are comprehensive and therefore provide ample information. Lastly, this inquiry does not look at text production and consumption as required by CDA. I follow Fairclough’s practice of not sociologically examining ways in which texts are produced and interpreted (Jorgensen &Phillips, 2002). As a normal practice by Fairclough, the analysis will commence from a linguistic angle in concrete texts. The last limitation of this thesis is the kind of limited research on PPPs with LFPSs in Black Africa, which slightly affected scope of this thesis.

1.5 Structure of the study This thesis is divided into eight chapters. Chapter one is general introduction about education in Black Africa, aims and objectives as well as the significance of the inquiry. Chapter two gives a background of Black Africa in terms to its economic standing and its place in relation to the global forces that shape the political economy in which it is constituted. The chapter briefly highlights background information about the nature of education Black Africa cherished and how it evolved with colonial education. The chapter cites the current trends in basic education in the region and specifies current developments in some three countries before giving a brief contextual background of Liberia where material for the study is picked. It also gives the context of Uganda to inform the thesis about education in the region. This background information is key to fully comprehend the nature of basic education terrain in which educational reforms are being introduced. Chapter three provides earlier research on PPPs in education in Black Africa and similar low income regions elsewhere. The chapter also provides insight about LFPSs in the same region. Chapter four outlines concepts and theories used in this inquiry. It describes neoliberalism, ‘disaster capitalism’, PPPs and LFPSs. The key theories of space and time as well as CDA are described in this chapter. Chapter five comprises all the methodological considerations of the thesis. One of the aspects in the chapter is CDA as theory and its methodological signposts as well as techniques. The methodological approach this paper uses is the three dimensional model by Fairclough. The thesis integrates this model with space-times as a discursive device adopted from Harvey’s theory of space and time. Chapter six comprises the analysis and results. Chapter seven develops the results into a broader discussion, relating them to earlier research on PPPs with LFPSs. Chapter 8 concludes the inquiry with ideas for future research. It is important to note that although research (a) to (c) are in that order, in practice the analysis will be reversed, with question (a) being discussed last in chapter 7 under social practice and questions (b) and ( c) first in chapter six. In CDA, research questions are formulated bearing in mind that discourses are socially embedded.

Chapter Two: Background

2.1 Evolution of education in Black African Black Africans cherish the values of collectivism as opposed to individualism. They cherish the public good, as opposed to individualistic dispositions. Before the commencement of colonialism, studies show formal and informal education was rife in Africa in which knowledge was transmitted to the young generation (Ezeanya-Esiobu, 2019). Ezeanya-Esiobu notes that education was conducted, not in isolation but involved a collection of individuals such age grades. Education stressed physical and metaphysical realities. Society demanded parents, nuclear and extended family members to be well socialized, and the primary responsibility of achieving that fell on the shoulders of the head of the family. Traditional education in Africa relied heavily on community efforts .The high regard attached to education gives rise to the most popular saying that goes: “It takes a village to raise a child” (Ezeanya-Esiobu, 2019, p.22). By extension, it takes an entire nation to raise a child. This ensured that even children born to very poor parents could surmount their economic disadvantage by being taught by both the rich and the poor alike. It is from this background that Black African states have been providing formal education as a public good to all categories of children, no matter their background. Sadly, this collectivism of the public spirit is systematically and methodically being destroyed by the Western individualism (individual agency) that stems from individual freedom that is central to the Western liberal tradition (Hickel, 2014). This is manifested through educational reforms.

2.2 The Black Africa debt crisis of the 1970s and its aftermath

Making sound interventions aimed at improving the education system of a country cannot be divorced from its economic standing. The first major step should focus on the country’s economic stability notably its resources – both natural and human, trade and so forth. Black Africa’s economic

status is linked to the global economic power houses. Black African countries constitute the world and they are constituted by the world in the sense that whatever happens at one point of the globe affects other parts in terms of economy or world politics. These occurrences may be natural such as climatic changes or socially engineered changes. Examples are cases global capitalism orchestrated by global structural systems such the World Bank, World Trade Organisation and a plethora of international organizations Before 1973, New York investment banks had surplus funds being recycled within the US financial establishments. Other funds were invested in oil and telecommunication within US, Europe and Latin America (Harvey, 2005). Harvey notes that in 1973 these banks focused on international lending of capital to foreign governments. This required liberalization of international credit which the US government promoted and supported. During the 1970s, developing countries were hungry for credit and were encouraged to borrow heavily from New York investment banks. The author notes that these loans were designated in US dollars and any rise in US interest rates would push vulnerable countries into default, thereby exposing these banks to losses. Hickel (2014) contends that this is what really happened; that lending resulted into Third World debt crisis in the 1970s and early 1980s. To correct the situation that had wrecked the stability of Wall Street banks, the US Treasury and International Monetary Fund (IMF) decided to roll over the debt but in return for neoliberal reforms (Harvey, 2005). Indebted countries were required to cut welfare spending on health, education and so forth and implement privatisation and have flexible labour laws (Harvey, 2005). This arrangement is referred to as structural adjustment programmes (SAPs). Hickel argues that during the 1960s and 1970s, per capita income in Black Africa grew at a modest 1.6%, but after the enforcement of SAPs it began to fall at the rate of 0.7% per year; poverty almost doubled in in Black Africa in the 1980s. Economist Robert Pollin asserts that poor countries lost $480 billion per year in gross domestic product (GDP) as result of being coerced to relinquish “the protectionist policies that they used to relatively good effect in the first decades following decolonization” (Hickel, 2014, p.1354). One of the IMF senior economists that designed SAPs for Latin America and Black Africa in the eighties by the name of Davison Budhoo did admit at one time that "everything we did from 1983 onward was based on our new sense of mission to have the south 'privatised' or die” (Klein, 2014, p.164). This created an ignominious economic bedlam especially in Black Africa. It must be noted that before SAPs, Wall Street lending banks would be liable by law to suffer losses for bad investment decisions but at the onset of the neoliberal era, borrowers were forced by international powers to pay the debt notwithstanding the consequences for the livelihood and wellbeing of the local population (Harvey, 2005). The major effect was to allow owners of capital in the US to extract high rates of return from the rest of the World, including Black Africa. As a result, the economic elite or upper class in the US and elsewhere in the global North became very rich through international flows and structural adjustment practices. (See figures: 1.1 and 1.2). This is how Black Africa was open to the international monetary regime of free trade characterized by deregulation, direct foreign investment, labour mobility and all ‘virtues’ of the neoliberal market. This has various effects. Black Africa succumbs to a net loss of 58 billion dollars per year. Honest Accounts calculates money outflows into the region and compares it to the resources that flow in each year. Research shows that Black Africa loses, among other resources, 46.3 billion dollars in profits by multinational corporations, 35.3 billion dollars in illicit financial flows facilitated by the global network of tax havens, 21 billion dollars in debt payments - quite

often following irresponsible loans and 6 billion dollars due to migration of skilled workers from the region (Sharples et al., 2014). According to Global Financial Integrity, multinational corporations are stealing 48.2 billion dollars through trade mis-invoicing (Curtis & Jones, 2017). Yet with all these resources and potential to develop, Black Africa still faces multiple problems. At the same time, the global North advances economic models that fuel poverty and inequality in all aspects of social life (Curtis & Jones, 2017). Education in the region is one of the spheres affected negatively by economic models from the West. Educational privatization for instance is a driver of social inequities in a region already grappling with other social problems such as disaster and civil strife. From 1980s the education sector has been under the influence of neoliberalism that favours the market logic (Murphy, 2018). In developing countries, neoliberalism has influenced policy in direction of privatization of schools and cutbacks in teachers’ job security (Murphy, 2018). In this case international organizations like the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development (OECD ) trade regulations push developing countries to adopt structures such as PPPs and accommodate international LFPSs (Robertson, 2011, cited in Murphy, 2018). The cardinal goal in this case is to influence educational systems in the region to meet the needs of multinational business interests – notably profit making (Murphy, 2018) at the expense of the local populace. Cast in the tempest of neoliberal capitalism, Black Africa is now vulnerable to all forms of economic, political, ideological and social manipulation. Global forces now determine the destiny of Black Africa. Public-private partnerships in education is one of such global forces

Fig. 1.1. Extracting surpluses from abroad: rates of return on foreign and domestic investments in the US, 1960–2002 (Harvey, 2005, p.30)

Fig.1.2. The flow of tribute into the US: profits and capital income from the rest of the world in relation to domestic profits (Harvey, 2005, p.30)

2.3 Education in Black Africa today This section is based on the 2018 World Bank report Facing Forward: Schooling for Learning in Africa. It provides insight about the state of basic education in Black Africa. This thesis draws on this report to illuminate two major issues: children enrolment and factors affecting access to basic education in Black Africa. These issues are very important as educational reforms in education in Black Africa partly rotate on access and enrolment. This report therefore may inform my thesis in the direction whether PPP in education relying on LFPSs is the best option to solve issues of access and learning outcomes. This report shows that since the 1990 Jomtien conference (education for all) and the Dakar 2000 World Education Forum, various education systems in Black Africa have flourished; tens of millions first generation pupils have enrolled in primary grades (Bashir et al., 2018). Between 1990 and 2013, enrolment in primary schools soared from 63 million to 152 million. The net enrolment increased dramatically from a regional average of 54 percent in 1999 to 78 percent in 2013 (Bashir et al., 2018). The pace of access to primary education differed according to individual countries. For example, just 20 percent of the girls who should have been in the final year of primary education in Ethiopia, Togo and Mozambique in 1990 were enrolled in that grade. In year 2015 the percentage share had grown to 45 percent in Mozambique, 53 percent in Ethiopia and 79 percent in Togo (Bashir et al., 2018). To this effect, this report categories Black Africa into four different groups of countries according to their primary gross enrolment rates (GERs), the percentage of primary school age children that are not in school and rate of retention of children from grade one to six. In the following figure, all percentages exceeding 100 suggests that there are overage pupils in those grade levels; the excess numbers beyond reflect such pupils.

Figure 1.3. Growth in access to primary education in 45 Black African countries, by Group, 2000–2013 (Bashir et al., 2018, p.10).

The four categories are described as Established (Group One), Emerged (Group 2), Emerging (Group 3) and Delayed (Group 4) in the table below. The Established (Group 1) shows that in 2000 the GERs were high and close to 100 percent around 2013; the out-of-school rates of primary school age children are low; and the rates of primary retention are nearly 100 percent in 2013. The Emerged (Group 2) shows the GERs are high in 2000 and equally high by around 2013; the out-of-school rates for children of primary age children are low and the rates of retention at primary are low in 2013. The Emerging (Group 3) shows the GERs are low in 2000 and high around 2013; the out-of- school rates for primary school age children are high and the rates of retention are low in 2013. In Delayed (Group 4) the GERs are low in 2000 and around 2013; the out-of-school rates for primary school age children are low around 2013

Table 1.1. Definition of four levels of progress in primary education across Black African countries, 2000– 2013 (Bashir et al., 2018, p.11).

Most countries in Black Africa have their primary education lasting six years. However the duration is seven years in ten countries, eight in six countries and five in three countries as shown in the following map. In terms of age, most countries expect pupils to be enrolled in primary by age seven. In 36 countries, the enrolment age is six and in one, the age should be five.

Map 1.1. Duration of primary education cycles in Black Africa, by country (Bashir et al., 2018, p.12).

In terms of retention rates (not shown in figure 1.3), the report shows different groups exhibit diverse patterns. In Group 1 (Established) the rates are high; they range from 80—100 percent which shows more established education systems in which children remain in school - illustrated by high GERs and low out-of-school rates. In Group 2 (Emerged) most children are in school, illustrated by relatively low out-of-school rates. However the retention rates are relatively lower than Group 1 at about 80 percent. Countries like Uganda, Rwanda and Malawi have a lot lower retention rates which portrays inefficiencies in their education systems. Group 3 (Emerging) shows that many children are out of school, with some countries retaining less than 50 percent of children. In Group 4 (Delayed) many children are out of school, but rates of retention vary; 80 - 85 percent rates of retention are noticeable in Burkina Faso and Sudan whereas fragile and conflict-prone states like Chad, Eritrea, Liberia and Equatorial Guinea the rates are less than 60 percent.

The second issue this report addresses is universal access to education in terms of equity. To attain full universal education equity is a vital aspect since poor children, rural children and girls may disproportionately be impacted by limited access to education (Bashir, et al., 2018). Socioeconomic status, gender, disability or ethnic origin should not be impediments to achieve education. There should be certainty that basic minimum standard of education to everyone is in place - that is to read, write and performing simple arithmetic (Bashir et al., 2018). The report urges that any educational programmes in Black Africa should ensure that access to education is implemented in rural areas since more than 62 percent of the region’s population lives there. In Group 4 countries for example, only about 50 percent of primary school age children in rural areas are enrolled, yet almost 100 percent of those in urban areas are enrolled in school. The following figure shows rural and urban enrolment according to groups. In the following figure, all percentages exceeding 100 suggest that there are overage pupils in those groups levels; the excess numbers beyond reflect such pupils.

Figure1.4. Gross enrollment ratios of primary education, rural versus urban location, in Black African countries by group (Bashir et al., 2018, p.173).

In terms of gender parity, almost all countries in Groups 1 to 3 have achieved gender parity in primary education, with group 4 still lagging back (Bashir et al., 2018). The report shows that generally, two thirds of Black Africa have a gender parity index of 0.95 or above in primary education. In the same vein, disparities in access to primary schooling based on income exist in Black Africa, but are more pronounced in French–speaking states like Senegal, Benin and Mali. Countries that have achieved universal access to primary education do not show any differences in access by wealth status In conclusion, this report frames the current educational terrain in Black Africa. If PPPs in education are preferred educational reforms, can they improve learning outcomes as opposed to strengthening existing national educational structures? In the following section, three countries –

two from Group 1 and one from Group 3 are described, highlighting their input in providing basic education. This section is important as it helps to illustrate that some countries have viable solutions to extending access to education that is equitable; it also shines torch on some that lack commitment to the same cause.

2.4 A concise amplification of basic education in three countries The aim of this thesis is to find out what educational challenges national governments in Black Africa need to solve through PPPs and how international LFPSs can offer viable solutions in such partnerships. This section therefore helps to inform my thesis whether educational reforms through PPPs is the best option or Black African countries can emulate others in the region to improve their basic education. Mestry, DU Plessis and Shanubi (2017) conducted research about access to public education in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. Their study gave an overview of basic education provision from colonial to post-colonial era. The access to education in this study was explained in reference to universal primary education (UPE) and education for all (EFA) of the 2015 millennium development goals (MDGs). In South Africa, public funding for the promotion of educational access is done at national and provincial levels. At the national level, the study showed that parliament allocates the highest amount of money to the education sector to increase access to schooling and develop infrastructure. The study shows no-fee schools were introduced in 2007 and in 2016, at least 60% of the schools did not charge fees. At the provincial level, the study reveals that the Provincial Education Department allocates 90% of their budget to pay salaries of educators, non-educators and department officials. The provincial departments also allocate resources keenly focusing on equity and social justice in public education to create greater access to the children. The study shows there is a pro-poor funding policy in education ministry where schools in quintile 1,2, and 3 are non-fee schools, serving the poor communities. The policy states that schools in quintile 1 and 2 should receive seven times more funding than quintile 4 and 5 (the rich schools). The study reveals the wealthiest 20% of schools in any province received 5% while the poorest received 35% of the resources. In the same order, the three quintiles receive 15%, 20% and 25% of the resources. The study reveals that no-fee schools provide access to a great many children from poor communities. The study illustrates that South Africa achieved the goal of UPE before 2015. In Zimbabwe, access to basic education is problematic. In an attempt to reach MDGs by 2015, the government provided per capita and tuition grants. Rural schools receive 45% of the vote, followed by high density suburbs (low income areas) at 30% and high income areas schools receive 25%. The study reveals that without donor funds, education in the country was destined to deteriorate much further. The study also reveals that dependency on donor money and failure by government to fund public education as well as user-fees or tuition had prevented the country from achieving MDGs of UPE and EFA. In Nigeria the study reveals that access to basic education is limited by funding. Nigerian public schools face many problems such as limited number of classrooms and other infrastructural facilities. The country’s inequality by socioeconomic status affects basic education, with poor areas finding it hard to provide basic education to all children. This is due to user fees levied in non-public schools as well as poor facilities in public schools. In summary, this research shows that South Africa, to some degree, has been able to offer UPE and EFA due to its high commitment to funding

public education whereas Nigeria and Zimbabwe are grappling with problems of limited funding of basic education due to economic and budgetary constraints.

2.5 Context This section provides a broad overview about Liberia from which data for analysis is drawn. The section predominantly focuses on the historical background of the country and its basic education provision. The section also presents Uganda’s context. Its historical and educational background is vital in informing my thesis in relation to my case study and the broader global education industry.

2.5.1. Liberia Liberia was founded in 1822 as a settlement country for freed Black American slaves; the American Colonization Society (ACS) established this country which became a republic in 1847 (Offutt-Chaney, 2019). Between the period 1820 and 1860 the ACS facilitated emigration of over 11,000 African Americans to Liberia (Schiller, 2011, as cited in Offutt-Chaney, 2019). Liberia is located in Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean between Ivory Coast and Sierra Leon. It has a population of 5,073,296 people, more than half of whom live in urban areas. English is the official language and the national literacy rate of Liberians of 15 years and above is 48.3 percent (CIA, 2020a). However, the country is a multilingual society as there are over sixteen indigenous ethnic groups. The biggest group is Kpelle in Central and Western Liberia (World Bank, 2016). Liberia is a low income country that runs a deficit budget; it relies on foreign assistance and remittances from the diaspora to stabilize its economy (CIA, 2020a). Liberia is a post-conflict country. In 1979 Samuel Doe led a coup d’état which set forth almost three decades of civil war and general chaos. Political sanity resurfaced in 2003 when a transition to democracy was initiated (World Bank, 2016). In terms of education, the 2019/2020 projection on education expenditure in the country was 15 percent of the national budget, which is 4.02 percent of education expenditure as percentage of the gross national product (GDP). With the above budget it is not possible to provide free universal quality basic education in the medium term; 20-30 percent in recurrent expenditure is needed (World Bank, 2016). The 2014-15 budget share was 11 percent on early childhood education (ECE) and 40 percent on primary education. Females, the poor and rural populations are less likely to read and write than their male, rich and urban counterparts (World Bank, 2016). Liberia Education Sector Analysis, a report by World Bank and Global Partnership for Education shows that some children in Liberia are prone to exclusion as opposed to others; poor food security, extreme poverty, poor health or disability all contribute to cases of vulnerable situations. Other disadvantageous variables in Liberia are being a girl child, having rural status and being in a household where a head is illiterate; all these are associated with some children being more susceptible to exclusion from education than others. The report reveals that basic education provision is a challenge; in 2015 only 59 percent reached grade 9. There are four categories of primary schools in Liberia. The government schools are operated and financed by the government of Liberia. In Monrovia, the Monrovia Consolidated School System oversees management and operation of government primary schools. The next

category are private schools that are created and operated by secular groups or individuals with no support from the public sector or national government. The third category is the Mission schools that have been existing since 1800s. These schools are operated by institutions with religious connections such as Methodist, Catholic, Islamic faith and so forth. Funds are generated from tuition and other fees by parents. However, many receive support from religious organisations. The last category are community schools; these are established and operated by local communities and are normally located in rural and remote areas. They are established with the hope that government would take over their finance and management. Private schools in Liberia account for over 50% enrolment of basic education pupils. In short, this is a brief overview of the country where data is drawn. Since 2016, Liberia has developed a policy of contracting out its public schools to LFPSs in a phased manner. One of the schools in the partnership is Bridge

2.5.2. Uganda Uganda was under British imperial rule and in 1962, it gained independence. Prior to colonial rule, the country was composed of different political systems of kingdoms and chiefdoms (CIA, 2020b). The 1971 coup d'état saw Idi Amin rule Uganda under a military dictatorship until he was deposed in 1979. The I980-1985 period in Uganda was characterized by a guerilla civil war that brought the present day President, who has ruled the country since 1986 (CIA, 2020b). Uganda is a landlocked country located in East Africa, west of Kenya and east of Democratic Republic of Congo. The country has fertile soils and a population of 43,252,966 people; English is the official language but there are many indigenous languages from different ethnic groups. Uganda has a rapidly growing population; the literacy rate is 76.5 percent. Majority of the labour force of 71 percent is involved in agriculture (CIA, 2020b). Uganda’s pre-primary education is exclusively private, paid for by parents and guardians; however this education is governed by an Education Act of 2008. The age of enrolment is 2-5 years (Begue-Aguado, Byamugisha & Muhwana, 2020). Universal primary education (UPE) was introduced in 1997 but little attention was paid to quality and equity (Ssebaggala, 2015). Ssebaggala (2015) notes that the number of primary school children tripled from 2.6 million in 1997 to 7.6 million in 2004. Ssebaggala’s analysis shows the rapid increase compromised quality issues as there were limited classrooms, few trained teachers and stagnant low salaries. The conversion of previously good schools into UPE schools caused a vacuum in quality education provision. Limited staff to carry out inspection of primary schools led to deteriorating conditions in UPE schools. Ghost teachers and pupils are not uncommon occurrences in such schools. UPE schools are associated with poor performance. This led to shrewd investors to start private schools, having noticed that keen parents had started avoiding UPE schools (Ssebaggala, 2015). To ‘support’ UPE, the government provides capitation grants to UPE schools to pay for indirect expenses. These grants are fixed at Uganda shillings 10,000 (2.7 US dollars) per pupil per year (Begue-Aguado et al., 2020). Since the introduction of UPE, private fee-paying primary schools are part of a fastest growing service industry in Uganda (Ssebaggala, 2015). Such spaces brought about by poor funding are exploited by international school chains like Bridge to set up business in slums and urban centres. Disparities are not uncommon in terms of access; literacy rates in the capital city Kampala are 30-40 points higher than in the poorest regions in rural areas. The private sector now composes 100 percent of pre- primary enrolment and 20.8 percent of primary education (Begue-Aguado et al., 2020).

The author of this thesis is Ugandan; he was born and raised in that country from where he completed three levels of education. Uganda’s primary schools are divided into two categories – private and government schools. The latter are either government-aided or government schools. Government-aided schools are missionary-founded schools or religious founded but aided by the government in terms of teachers’ salaries and other available grants. The founding bodies of such schools have a say in management and may reject any principal posted in those schools. Purely government schools have no religious connections and are purely day schools fully managed by the government. Government-aided schools are mainly mixed (co-educational). Government-aided boarding schools majorly rely on user fees from parents; they are all religious-founded schools. Purely government day primary schools rely on capitation grants from government. On the other hand, there are private primary schools. These are either day or boarding, yet others are day and boarding schools. Some are religious founded and others are purely secular. Some schools run a dual curriculum, like those of Islamic faith – teaching the national curriculum and the theological curriculum. Private schools are both in rural and urban centres and cater for all types of parents, from low income to high income clients. Some primary private schools charge tuition higher than that for university. Except for government-aided boarding schools, there is no government school that can rival private schools in learning outcomes. Therefore, rich parents prefer private or government-aided boarding schools, but the latter are very few and competitive. In terms of equity, the Ministry of Education and Sports has very few interventions for the 38 percent of vulnerable children in Uganda; this vulnerability is by age, social class, location, disability and limited income (Begue-Aguado et al., 2020). The Independent assessment (appraisal) report on the education and sports sector strategic plan 2017-2020 commissioned by the Department for International Development (DFID) shows there are 2.5 million children that live with some form of disability and majority do not have access to education but the Education and Sports Strategic Plan (ESSP) 2017-2020 does not include special needs education as a vital issue, not even as a subsector (Begue-Aguado et al., 2020). As a result there are very limited resources allocated to education to cater for vulnerable children in primary schools. It is not a surprise therefore that the budget for general education has been reducing over years notwithstanding the continuous economic growth in Uganda as seen below.

Figure1.5. Evolution of government budget and share allocated to education (2011-2017) (Begue-Aguado, Byamugisha & Muhwana, 2020, p. 11).

In conclusion, Uganda’s pre-and primary education is highly stratified due to neglect by national government that has stifled its expansion. This chapter has highlighted the context of Black Africa, a region that is undertaking many educational reforms such as PPPs with LFPSs. The next chapter is about earlier research so that a clear understanding of PPPs with LFPSs is put in perspective.

Chapter Three: Earlier research The aim of this thesis is to explore the kind of proposed basic education services provided under PPPs with LFPSs. Specifically this thesis attempts to understand the nature of educational reforms advocated in PPPs with LFPSs, probes the nature of the relationship between government and private sector bodies in PPPs and locate the power within these relationships, and attempts to identify the equity and inclusiveness in the basic education services provided by PPPs with LFPSs. This chapter on earlier research is a narrative review; its purpose is to generate more understanding on PPPs with LFPSs in general (Bryman, 2012), and specifically highlight the Black African context in which this arrangement operates. I used Stockholm University database to search for the articles. However due to limited research done on PPPs with LFPSs in Black Africa , there were few relevant articles I could get. This chapter provides earlier research about PPPs in education in Black Africa and similar low income regions elsewhere. The chapter also provides overview about LFPSs in the same region. This thesis focuses on PPPs in education in which LFPSs are contract schools. However, due to limited research about LFPSs as contract schools in the region, the LFPSs in section (3.2.) are like other private schools providing private services. Therefore LFPSs in (3.2) are not contract schools under PPP with national governments. The information presented in (3.2.) however helps to inform my thesis about such schools that national governments in the region are set to contract under a PPP arrangement to provide basic education. Before presenting the two sub-sections of this earlier research, it is important to motivate this thesis with a concise brief about basic education in Black Africa by Lewin (2009). Lewin (2009) analysed access to basic education in Black Africa. He used data from 44 countries from the region. His research focused not merely on enrolment rates but also on attendance, achievement, progression and completion at suitable ages. Though this research also focused on basic education at secondary, it informs my thesis as it included results on basic primary cycle. The study examined patterns of access overtime. In general the study reveals that despite the high gross enrolment rates (GERs) and net enrolment rates (NERs) in many countries in the region, the major increase has been the persistent over enrolment in the lower grades. It shows that attrition was very high and the massive enrolment at lower grades through EFA was not reflected at higher grades. In terms of patterns of participation by household income, the study relied on data got from the Demographic and Health Survey. Supposing these data sets were separated into the richest 20 percent and the poorest 40 percent, the study revealed that children that belonged to the wealthiest 20 percent of households in Black Africa had on average more than six times the opportunity of reaching Grade 9 as opposed to the poorest 40 percent of households. Overall this study showed that patterns of access in education in Black Africa were not always those anticipated by EFA. The study showed household income is a very powerful factor of progression to Grade 9 and beyond. This implies poorer households have more of their children drop out of school before completing the primary cycle. This study is crucial as policy makers ought to emphasis on increasing access to the most vulnerable groups in society. As PPPs with LFPSs are spreading in Black Africa, this equity dimension should be a factor to consider. My thesis only relates to this study as far as income disparities are concerned in the provision of basic education in Black Africa.

3.1. Public-private partnership in education in developing countries PPPs came to be known the 1970s when the US federal government used them as a tool to stimulate private investment in inner-city infrastructure development, and their record in that decade is mixed (Linder, 1999). PPP in education is a new trend in Black Africa promoted by donors and the World Bank (Klees, 2008; Ball, 2012). Be as it may, there is limited research on PPPs in education in Africa (Ssenyonjo, 2020). The first article majorly draws on research made on PPPs in high income countries. Verger and Moschetti (2017) explore PPPs at basic education level majorly focusing on their risks and challenges. Their paper is a review that examines specific implementations of PPPs in education. They note how PPPs in education adopt neoliberal market logic in the education systems. The authors explore issues of equity and accountability frequently cited in support of PPPs. The study strictly focuses on PPPs in the delivery of educational services – that is schooling rather than other services like infrastructure development. In practical terms, the authors aver, PPPs could breed complex organisational structures that may fail to meet a ‘balance’; public-private organisational structure entails cardinal tension between public accountability and commercial preference. This article reveals that the first major publication about PPPs in education focusing on low and middle income countries appeared in 2009 as a World Bank report to address policy solutions on access and quality issues that many education systems were grappling with. World Bank’s conceptualization of PPPs ranges from co-existence of public and private schools to complete, or total private sector takeover through voucher system – where funding follows the students. The authors note that there are challenges with PPPs in education such as accountability issues. This includes among other things students’ admissions and teacher training. Monitoring and enforcing good performance by national governments demands a strong regulatory and management capability – which is lacking in many countries. In practical terms, balanced risk and responsibility sharing is not attained by both the state and the private partners as the former have a duty of providing goods and services like education as a social and human right. Should a partnership fail, the authors contend, the state grapples with its own unmet goals and responsibilities. This article addresses issues of learning outcomes and equity goals. The authors observe that existing literature in support of PPPs in education in promoting expanded access, improved quality and equity as well as educational innovation is questionable. They contend existing academic evidence suggests not quite clear results across those dimensions. They conclude that PPPs in education generally replicate the long-standing privatization interventions marketed since 1980s. They advise that countries looking forward to adopting PPPs in their education systems should look for other alternatives to improve schooling. They state that multi-stakeholder partnerships for capacity building are a viable option as they do not undermine the core principles of public education and future developments of educational systems. This article is crucial to my thesis. It cites issues of oversight by national governments over private providers given their limited personnel. In Black Africa, this oversight may be a major problem given the effects of SAPs that force governments to have a skeletal work force. With limited funding to the public sector, PPPs with LFPSs may not be appropriate in Black Africa as such private providers could exploit the gaps in the education systems in a bid to gain profit. Aslam, Rawal and Saeed (2017) conducted probably the biggest study about PPPs in education on developing countries. Their study is a rigorous review of evidence of 22 studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America. This study looked at three key types of PPPs in education – subsidies to non- state providers, voucher schemes and contract schools. About studies on contract schools done in Pakistan and Colombia using quantitative methods, evidence is inconclusive as to whether such

arrangements have positive impact on learning outcomes. These studies however indicate improved enrolment and management practices in schools. About subsidies to private schools, nine studies in Colombia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Venezuela indicate that this arrangement might have benefits in improving learning outcomes. However these particular studies have limitations in the methodology as some specific questions were not answered. These studies indicate that using subsidies aid the educational programmes to reach the poorer sections of society. About voucher schemes, nine studies done in Chile, India and Pakistan indicate that evidence on learning outcomes is mixed and inconclusive. Six studies done in Chile showed evidence which is mixed and controversial – with authors citing the potential that voucher programmes increase social stratification and inequalities. It is also questionable, the authors contend, if these voucher schemes increase learning outcomes of the most disadvantaged children in society. Evidence from other countries is mixed – it is not clear whether these vouchers can benefit the most vulnerable children in the community. However, a key benefit of these voucher programmes in specific contexts is the increased enrolment especially to those groups of children who would find it very hard to join the school system. The authors of this study posit that whereas there could be some evidence on relative effectiveness of non-state schools (with or without PPPs) on the improvement of learning outcomes, such comparison is based on worrisomely low levels of overall achievement in the total education system. In this regard, any relative advantage connected to the private sector may not be sufficiently big to relieve quality fears. In this study the authors show that there are few cases of PPPs from Black Africa and no study involved PPPs with LFPSs. This study shows that PPPs in education in developing countries in particular are adopted based on scant evidence, yet important education policy decisions could affect millions of children in these regions. This study is vital to my thesis notably with issues of aggravating social inequalities that are already rising in Black Africa. If cases of voucher schemes could worsen existing inequalities in the region, then PPPs with LFPSs should be thoroughly scrutinized before adoption in the region. Another study by Bous and Farr (2019) addresses PPPs in education in Chile, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Uganda and Zambia. This briefing paper focuses on issues of accountability and access in the provision of education for all (EFA). The paper also uses case studies – focusing on PPPs in education in Pakistan and Uganda. The authors conducted the study focusing on basic primary and secondary schools. Unlike other studies, this paper fully addresses the concerns of PPPs with LFPS in the provision of schooling. Generally the paper indicates that there is mixed evidence on learning outcomes under PPPs and that there is no evidence that they consistently do better than public schools. Moreover a 17 - country study found that PPP schools disproportionately benefitted upper income students in the biggest number of countries in the group. In Pakistani, for example, out-of-pocket costs were valued to be 50% of the income of the parent living at the fringes of poverty line. Yet in Uganda, students in PPP schools performed badly on assessments as opposed to their counterparts in government schools and other private schools. This therefore begs the question why national governments would adopt PPPs in the provision of schooling. With all the above mentioned shortfalls about LFPSs, it is astonishing that India, Liberia, Pakistani and Uganda would still seek such schools to solve issues of access and quality in schooling through a PPP arrangement. This thesis therefore seeks to examine the justification of promoting of LFPSs in Black Africa by international organisations and donor countries. Bous and Farr (2019) note that World Bank’s World Monitoring Report 2018 shows that there is no consistent evidence that private schools perform better in learning outcomes than public schools, or the reverse. Nonetheless, World Bank still supports the private sector in the provision of

31 education. The authors of this study give evidence that LFPSs consistently rely on unqualified, short-contract teachers and pay them exceptionally low wages – in many cases below the minimum wage. This leads to tradeoffs with education quality due to greater profit preference. Omega schools in Ghana for example rely on scripted, standardized lessons to compensate for lack of well trained teachers. LFPSs are riddled with controversies notably in resisting government regulations. Bridge International Academies in Uganda were shut down in 2018 due to refusal to meet standards on teacher certification and qualifications. In Pakistan, a study revealed that LFPSs were involved in creating a category of low salaried untrained, temporary female teacher labour force. This raises concerns about gender equality and labour rights. Bous and Farr (2019) quote a study done in Uganda that shows students in PPP secondary schools scored lower grades in English, biology and mathematics compared to their counterparts in government and other private schools. Other findings in Punjab cast a dismal picture. Since funding is tied to student performance on standardized tests, the schools exclude learners with disabilities and those likely to do poorly in these tests. The authors reveal that in both Uganda and Pakistan case studies, there is great reliance on unqualified and poorly trained teachers and there is high teacher turnover due to limited funding and profit preference in LFPSs. There are consistent findings about limited regulation of PPP schools and non- existent frameworks for community oversight by the authors. This study is vital to my thesis as it can be a guide to my reflection during analysis about some omissions or evasions LFPSs may commit to maximize profit, the same way they do by hiring unqualified teachers to save money. Although this study included secondary schools, it informs my thesis in issues to do with the private sector in a PPP arrangement. These motives to do with business could be related in both primary and secondary education provision. In Lagos – Nigeria a study was done with data generated in 2014 under Word Bank’s Systems Approach to Better Education Results (SABER). Using this data, Baum, Abdul-Hamid and Wesley (2018) give insights about private schooling. Although this study does not refer to PPPs in education, it highlights problems associated with private schooling in basic education provision in Black Africa. This study is about access, equity and quality of LFPSs; these schools are recommended by donors to be contracted under PPP arrangement. The study presents findings obtained from a census of private schools in Ajeromi-Ifelodun in Lagos. This is a highly populated area with low income households. The study uses descriptive statistics of key variables to explain the private school sector. The study classified private schools into three categories: approved, in the process of approval and unapproved. Those in the process of approval are described thus if they were progressing towards fulfilling registration requirements to be officially licensed as a non-state schools. Only 19% of the schools in Ajeromi-Ifelodun were approved. The findings indicate approved schools charge high fees – on average 267 dollars as opposed to unapproved ones that charge 102 dollars. Approved private schools have 70% of teachers officially certified as compared to 36% in unapproved schools. The study shows that only five out of the 318 schools considered LFPSs are approved – which is 1.5%. Therefore private schooling, the authors observe, is not homogenous, yet the World Bank and other donors as well as some researchers seem to categorise it as homogenous. These are the kind of LFPSs that donors recommend to national governments in Black Africa to contract under PPPs. These authors quote other studies that find no differences in terms of quality between LFPSs and government schools. They explain that this blurred difference has implications and thus policy makers and researchers must be aware that private education is not homogenous. They note that quality in private schooling is significantly related to its cost. This implies poorest families cannot afford the best quality opportunities. Yet with such shortcomings

32 about LFPSs donors still advise national governments in Black Africa to contract them under PPPs to improve learning outcomes; this is so even with overwhelming evidence that shows almost none qualifies to be approved by the same governments as indicated in this study. The fact that just 1.5 percent of LFPSs are approved sends signals that Black Africa should be cautious about PPPs with LFPSs. Menashy (2015) conducted a study to explore non-state actors in the delivery of educational services at primary and secondary school levels. Her study examined multi-stakeholder partnerships in education under the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) in order to find out issues to do with collective decision making about private delivery of K-12 schooling. Multi-stakeholder partnerships in education are similar to PPPs in education save for the fact that in the former there are more stakeholders involved in education projects like non-government organisations (NGOs) and community leaders. Menashy (2015) examines data sources such as policy reports, meeting documents (minutes) and so forth plus interviews. She conducted 19 interviews with key informants from GPE and Fast Track Initiative to delve into the perceptions harboured about private education delivery through multi-stakeholder partnerships. The findings of the study indicate that some stakeholders like civil society organizations, such as Education International, oppose private schools – either low fee or commercial; the logic is that they are not the best option to achieve EFA since education is a public good and a basic human right. From the interviews, some GPE Board members believe that private schools do not extend access, take children out of government schools and undermine local governments. Other Board members hold the view that education in low income countries is too public-sector dominated and lacks innovation, so private schooling fills the gap. Overall, the study found there is a strong opposition among GPE Board members and country stakeholders about private education delivery. One interesting revelation about the study is that at GPE meetings, the topic of private education is never discussed since it is too ideological and could rapture the organisation. In such cases, national governments and other stakeholders direct where the funds go –public or private. This article is vital to this thesis; ideology and power could be implicated in spreading PPPs with LFPSs. This study is equally vital as it provides the view that private education undermines local governments. In Black Africa this could be an issue since there is limited personnel to carry out oversight of private providers of education. This section of earlier research reveals that the push for PPPs in education is not based on consistent reliable evidence, and that the push for change could be ideologically driven. Since education is now a big business, the PPPs may be a trajectory through which the neoliberal West may invest their excess capital.

3.2. Low fee private schools in the provision of basic education in developing countries In Black Africa, there have been all forms of low fee and high fee schools at primary level for many years. The concept of LFPSs in this thesis in regard to basic education schooling is synonymous with international school chains in the region especially after the works of Professor James Tooley. This earlier research focuses on the low fee international school chains that are trading educational services in Black Africa. Riep (2017) conducted research that explored market devices that Bridge International Academies (henceforth Bridge) had deployed to construct business

opportunities for low schooling in Black Africa and Asia. His study also explored the market investments (organisations and corporations) and investors that support the operations of Bridge. This study reveals that Bridge’s innovation in education market is motivated by two vital opportunities. The first is the poor families who live on two dollars per day and are willing to spend 80 US dollars on education annually but lack access to quality schools. With 800 million primary and nursery population from such families, Bridge claims that this results to 64 billion US dollars in paid fees. The second opportunity Bridge cites is the 179 billion US dollars of publically funded charter school market in low income countries. One of such examples is partnership for Liberian Schools in which Bridge is contracted to provide basic education services. This study shows a variety of devices Bridge uses to market its services such as technology in teaching, fees payment, general administration and market research. Through ‘network ethnography’ Riep (2017) cites sources of capital investments that prop Bridge’s educational business empire. The author reveals Bridge boasts of over 100 million US dollars’ worth investments, all received from international financial institutions, philanthropic organisations, venture capitalists and government agencies. The startup capital for Bridge was the 2008 eight million US dollars from Clinton Global Initiative. In 2009, Bridge received 1.8 million US dollars from Omidyar Network and in 2010 Pearson PLC invested a 15 percent stake in Bridge’s share capital through Learn Capital. Other sources of money include Zuckerberg Education Services which invested ten million US dollars; New Enterprise Associates invested undisclosed amount of money too. Government agencies of the US and the UK have supported Bridge with long term loans. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the US’ development fund institution gave Bridge ten million US dollars and UK’s DFID extended 15 million British pounds to the same company through Novastar. Yet in 2014, World Bank’s International Finance Corporation announced a ten million US dollar investment for Bridge. All these sources of income explain the financial muscle of Bridge’s investment in low income countries. Riep (2017) notes that the markets in low fee schooling are not inevitable; rather they are created or made to constitute the global education industry. This article is vital as it helps my thesis in probing the powers behind most LFPSs in Black Africa. If markets for LFPSs are created, strong international organizations and agencies as well as donor countries could be implicated in this attempt. Riep (2014) conducted a research in Accra in Ghana on Omega schools, a low fee school chain owned by James Tooley, a Professor of Education Policy and Ken Donkoh, a Ghanaian entrepreneur. His research among other items investigated the implications of Omega schools as a Franchise in relation to matters of equity, affordability and access in Ghana – a low income country. His data collection was based on in-field research, interviews with ‘school managers’, teachers, pupils, ministry officials and co-founder Ken Donkoh. Secondary data sources included press releases, reports and so forth on Omega website. This empirical study explored if Omega schools are considered affordable, that is serving the lowest 10 percent of pupils otherwise deemed excluded from basic education. The study discovered that indeed Omega schools are not expanding access of basic education but providing an option to those who can pay fees in both private and public schools. Omega schools were thus not implementing the idea of expanding access to the most marginalized in society. The study revealed that over 20 schools were concentrated in peri-urban areas in Accra – a region with the highest annual household income. A typical household that belongs to the 5-7 percent bottom social stratum in and around Accra needs to spend 43 percent of its annual income to send just one child to Omega.

This research therefore shows that low fee paying schools like Omega have equity issues that could result in social stratification, inequality and polarization common in low income countries. The study also reveals that Omega schools were not located in areas where provision was absent but in those communities that could afford to sustain the economic model of the for- profit institution. There was a cluster of Omega schools in densely populated areas competing for the pupils with other schools. Those children in villages therefore remain excluded from educational provision – denying thousands of children access to education. Advertised as supplementing existing state provision of ‘education for all’ goals, Omega schools were in reality profiting from the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ especially those who could afford to pay. The research exposes the fact those marginalised groups excluded from access to educational services are not a priority of Omega schools as they claim. This study shows that Omega schools, largely supported by transnational capital provided by Pearson – the global largest educational multinational corporation, served the most affluent of the poor in West Africa. In summary, this study shows Omega schools are not affordable to the bottom 10 percent in Ghana. Moreover, they are not extending initial access to basic education but competing for pupils already accessing schools in the communities. All the earlier research in this chapter is rather modest; this thesis seeks to probe further aspects uncovered in this chapter, powers promoting PPPs with LFPSs, how they relate with local authorities and whether they are a better alternative to existing education system in Black Africa. PPP with LFPSs in Black Africa is a new phenomenon and no country has publicly privatized its public basic education just as Liberia has done since 2016. This thesis therefore aims to identify the impact of PPP with LFPSs in terms of extending access. The next chapter is the conceptual and theoretical framework of this thesis.

Chapter Four: Conceptual and theoretical framework

4.1. Harvey’s historical-geographical theory of space and time The previous four decades are characterized by fundamental economic and social transformation on a world scale. This shift referred to is the period from the Fordist mass production and consumption of goods to ‘flexible accumulation’ (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). By ‘flexibility’ this thesis refers to the intensive technological innovation in diversifying production as well as the flexibility of labour where short term and part time working are the norm (Harvey, 1990). The economic changes as well as the social transformation due to advances in technology and neoliberal practices all combine to affect every aspect of social life. This new phase of social life is what is referred to as ‘late modernity' (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). Critical theories of late modernity are read from a linguistic perspective - what is said about language and what is inferred about it. This is in line with the research agenda for CDA within the interdisciplinary study of late modernity (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). This thesis recognizes Harvey’s theory as work of critical research that can complement CDA in unveiling the impact of PPPs in education in Black Africa. Harvey’ theory of space and time is focused on late modernity. The concepts of space and time are socially constructed; however, they function with the full force of objective fact and play a central role “in the processes of social reproduction” (Harvey, 1990, p.418). Harvey analyses the concept of time and space in line within the capitalist economic changes in late modernity. The focus is on the transition of these economic changes from ‘Fordist’ form of economic production to the contemporary system of flexible accumulation (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). This kind of transformation entails a qualitatively substantial acceleration of processes of time-space compression that have been prevalent in late modernity. There has been a speedup of life so much so that the

present seem all there is, coupled with a transcendence of spatial boundaries (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). This compaction of time and space has charted a way out of the dilemma of over-accumulation within Fordism to the new economic era of ‘flexible accumulation’. The ‘temporal fix’ to problems associated with Fordism has given rise to, among other options “an acceleration of the turnover time of capital (the time it takes for capital to pass through the economic cycle and produce a profit); the ‘spatial fix’ has been an absorption of excess capital and labour” (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). This has been possible through an expansionist implantation of capitalism in the vast areas of the world. Speeding up the turn-over time of capital implies accelerating production. This is achieved by increasing the tempo of technological innovation and organizational change. The present-day market conditions are “progressively innovative-intensive and research and development intensive” (Lash, 1993, cited in Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999, p. 77). This means the labour process is intensified so much that those who can find work are under increasing pressure. The intensification of the labour process means there is need for workers to constantly reskill themselves because the existing skills become outdated (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). The speedup is also widespread in distribution and consumption. This speedup in consumption is assisted by noticeable shift from material goods to services. Services are generally preferred as they have shorter ‘life-time’ than goods. This shift is characterised by deep involvement of capitalist penetration of many cultural fields that were formerly outside or on the edge of commodity market (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). The religious, class, gender and cultural and political differences in conceptualising time and space are often sites of social conflict (Harvey, 1990). There are “new definitions of what is the correct time and place for everything” (Harvey, 1990, p.420). There also arise proper objective qualities of space and time. Harvey illustrates these struggles over space and time. He reports a fictitious dialogue between a capitalist and a worker in the works of Marx. The capitalist asserts that a fair day’s work should be measured in relation to how long a worker needs to recuperate enough strength to resume work the following day. And for that matter “a fair day’s wage is given by the money required to cover daily reproduction costs” (Harvey, 1990, p.420). The worker retorts that such a calculation does not take into account the shortening of life which results from unremitting toil. And in that case the calculation of a fair day’s work and wage appears very different when computed over a working life. Harvey reports that Marx acknowledges both are correct from the viewpoint of the laws of the market exchange. However, different class perspectives dictate different time zones for social calculation” (Harvey, 1990, p.420). In the contest of such equal rights, Marx contends that force decides (Harvey, 1990). Harvey (1990) explains that societies keep on changing and growing; at times they are subjected to transformations from within and can adapt to pressures from without. In such cases, societies’ objective conceptions of space and time ought to change to adapt to new material practices and social reproduction. The way such changes take place vary. Harvey notes that new conceptions of space and time have been imposed through force by imperial expansion and neocolonial domination. In the contemporary society, most public definitions of space and time have been imposed during the course capitalist development.

Harvey (1990) contends that these economic changes have fundamental cultural effects. The present-day societies are dominated by “the volatile, the ephemeral and the disposable in the arena of material goods as well as in values, life styles, stable relationships, attachment to things, place and people” (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999, p. 77). In this case the sense of time and history is more or less diminished. The temporary contract is now the trademark of modern living. Long term planning in such situations of volatility presents big problems for capitalism; it therefore deals with these through being very flexible in response to the market forces or changes and through control of public communication. Advertising is but a pervasive cultural form, and consequently changes in dominant commodity form are noticeable – notably from material goods to signs and images. In these circumstances, images of reality displace reality to the extent that the line between the two becomes indistinct. At the same time, there is “a process of ‘annihilation of space through time’ notably as the speed and cost of travel, transportation, communication of information have been dramatically reduced, spatial barriers have collapsed” (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999, p.77). Heterogeneous commodities (such as drinks), cultural practices and built environments are gathered in specific places and “there is a nightly assemblage of all the divergent spaces of the world as a collage of images upon the television screen” (Harvey, 1989, cited in Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999, p. 77). There are two kinds of reaction to the changes; there is exploitation – or one could say celebration of the possibilities they create, especially in the crossing of boundaries and the hybridization of practices (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). Another kind of reaction is a major defensive one that seeks to “re-establish collective and individual identities and which has involved the thematisation of nation, religion, community and family” (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999, p.78).

4.2. Neoliberalism Neoliberalism is a “theory of political economic practices that proposes that human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets, and free trade” (Harvey, 2005, p.2). Harvey avers that the role of the state in a neoliberal set up is increasing and preserving an institutional fabric suitable for those practices. Others scholars give related explanations of neoliberalism; Ball (2012) asserts that neoliberalism is a term widely used and sometimes in a loose manner. He credits one definition expressed by Shamir Ronen. Neoliberalism “[I]s treated neither as a concrete economic doctrine nor as a definite set of political project. Rather I treat neoliberalism as a complex, often incoherent, unstable and even contradictory set of practices that are organized around a certain imagination of the ‘market’ as a basis for universalisation of market-based social relations, with the corresponding penetration in almost every single aspect of our lives of the discourse and/or practice of communication, capital accumulation and profit making” (Carvalho and Rodrigues, 2006, as cited in Ball, 2012, p.3) The common basic principle of neoliberalism is the “primacy of the individual who, by acting in their own self-interest, maximize the freedom and well-being of all (Mudge, 2005, as cited in

MacNaughton and Frey, 2018, p.4). Whatever differences there are in the concept of neoliberalism, the state plays a role to secure proper environment of markets, and if such markets are absent in areas like health, education and so forth, the state must create them (Harvey, 2005). Harvey notes once markets are in place, state intervention must be kept to the least minimum. The practices manifested due to neoliberalism are deregulation, privatization and the inevitable withdrawal of the state in the provision of social services such education, health, social security and so forth. Neoliberalism consists of three interlinked elements – ideology, policy-making network and the role of the state (MacNaughton and Frey, 2018). Neoliberal ideology focuses on the concept of human freedom and dignity. Neoliberalism also promotes markets since they are considered impersonal mechanisms that promote individual freedom. In this case markets are a guide to all forms human action; the markets values substitute all other ethical beliefs (MacNaughton and Frey, 2018). There is a general belief among neoliberal advocates that the private sector delivers the social services efficiently as opposed the state (Haglund, 2010, cited in MacNaughton and Frey, 2018) due to the inherent competition. Neoliberalism thus “holds that the social good will be maximized by maximizing the reach and frequency of the market transactions, and seeks to bring all human action into the domain of the market” (Harvey, 2005, p.3). MacNaughton and Frey (2018) assert that neoliberalism embraces ideals of individuality rather than societal welfare, market-based as opposed to state-directed organisation of economic and social life, as well as private sector than state-directed development of national industries. Neoliberalism as an ideology encourages states to play a transformative role in promoting market-based policies such as legal and security structures. The state should also expand markets notably that were formerly in the public sphere such as health and education (MacNaughton and Frey, 2018). Neoliberal policies advocate a series of interrelated reforms such as movement of foreign capital, cutting basic government expenditure, privatization of government operations and lower work protection rights and limited state involvement on economic life (MacEwan, 2005; Klees, 2008). Neoliberalism appears in common sense framing of education through upward individual economic mobility, that is cash in knowledge for jobs and global economic competition by propping the private sector (Saltman, 2009). In many countries for example, schools are handled over to private companies to be run under contract on a profit basis (Ball & Youdell, 2008). Private providers are considered to provide better education services that municipal or public schools.

4.3. ‘Disaster capitalism’ ‘Disaster capitalism’, sometimes labeled ‘accumulation by dispossession’ (Harvey, 2005), refers to “orchestrated raids on the public sphere in the wake of disasters as exciting market opportunities” by powerful international superpowers (Klein, 2007, p.6). Milton Friedman, an American economist is the brain child behind ‘disaster capitalism’, a subset of neoliberalism. Friedman’s disaster capitalism’ obeys a simple strategy: capitalists wait for a major crisis to happen and then sell off pieces of the state to the private sector at a time when citizens are still reeling from the shock. Quickly, they make ‘reforms’ permanent (Klein, 2007). In her book The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein quotes one of Friedman’s most influential works in which he explains the core tactical rostrum of disaster capitalism’. Friedman asserted that “only a crisis – actual or perceived - produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep

39 them above and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable” (Klein, 2007, p.6). Friedman advises that once the disaster has struck, there is need to act very fast to impose rapid irreversible changes before the crisis-haunted society slips back into the ‘tranny of the status quo” (Klein, 2007, p.7). Friedman estimates that for any administration set up to achieve major changes, it must do so in six-to-nine months or else it will lose the opportunity if it fails to act decisively in that time schedule. Klein (2007, p. 7) observes that this time schedule is a slight variation on “Machiavelli’s advice that injuries should be inflicted all at once”. Disaster capitalism thrives on an exceptional potential of magnifying disaster in which the normal principle of self-reliance and self-interest (the homo economicus premise) is set aside through the hailing of victims that need assistance and bystanders who should assist them (Atasay & Delavan, 2012). In reference to the victims, a nation impacted by a disaster invoked can be invited into a subjectivity that is in such desperate circumstances as to accept any conditionalities attached to aid. The next move in this potential of disaster is to create an audience of consensual bystanders to assist the victims (Atasay & Delavan, 2012). People not directly impacted are hailed into subjectivities that have compassion and would like to share their resources with those whose wellbeing is affected by disaster. This results in resources being collected and distributed according to communal needs. Neoliberals at this stage harness this kind of communist subjectivity and redirect it to privatisation in a bid to have a kill at the resources of compassion. Donation from individuals, nations and organisations is captured at the actual moment of implementation by companies to perform the work for pay as opposed to a public service (Atasay & Delavan, 2012). ‘Disaster capitalism’ at a large scale takes place in states bedeviled by hyperinflation. Rapid – fire transformations of the economy takes place with tax cuts, cuts of government expenditure and deregulation. The speed and sudden changes in economic shifts provoke the psychological reactions in the general public – hence this facilitates their adjustment. Friedman calls this painful strategy: “economic shock treatment” (Klein, 2007, p.7). This capitalism thrives best after wars – when the countries are still in flames and then immediately economic shock therapy is introduced through free trade and downsizing new governments. Klein states that disasters like hurricanes provide ‘clean sheets’ and exciting opportunities for the international corporate world to advance selfish business interest. Such corporations use moments of collective trauma to carry out radical social and economic engineering (Klein, 2007). Klein asserts that the idea about exploiting crises and disasters was the mondus operandi of Milton Friedman since the very beginning. In the last 40 years of infamous human rights violations and other similar sadistic deeds by anti- democratic governments were committed with full intention of preparing ‘fertile’ ground for radical capitalism reforms. Massacres and arrests of thousands of people give mandate to national governments and international corporate organisations to introduce free market reforms. Sometimes, traumatic episodes need not be violent. Debt crises force countries to adopt free market reforms: they have to choose between two ‘evils’ – “be privatized or die” as some IMF official demanded (Klein, 2007, p.10). The hyper-inflation and being highly indebted makes countries to take the bitter pill of getting foreign loans to save themselves from deeper and worse disasters. The structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) is one of the tools of ‘disaster capitalism’. Only under the atmosphere of large scale crises can Friedman’s free market logic (‘disaster capitalism’) be implemented when the wishes of voters are overruled and the countries are in the hands of economic “technocrats” (Klein, 2007, p.10). In fully fledged democracies Friedman’s market ‘reforms’ are

partially implemented. In Black Africa, for example, fragile states and those hit by disasters like Ebola can accept any form of aid because of their desperate situation. Educational reforms such as PPPs are indeed easy to implement in Group 4 countries (see figure 1.3, chapter two) since they have very weak education systems. Education is an ideological apparatus through which privatisation and decentralization exacerbate class inequality; this is done through weakening universal provision and weakening the public role of service whose effect is poorer public service provision and hence a justification for further privatisation (Saltman, 2009). Black Africa now seems enmeshed in these circumstances.

4.4. Public-private partnerships International development organisations view PPPs as a linchpin in the strategy of delivering services in the South (DIFID, 1999; USAID, 1997, as cited in Ginsburg, 2012). Though PPPs are common in many fields like energy, construction and other infrastructure developments, this thesis majorly focuses on PPPs in education. Specifically, the thesis centres on those PPPs in which government directs policy and supplies finance whilst the private sector provides public educational services (Robertson et al., 2012). However, this section too generally covers a variety of PPPs in many sectors. A public-private partnership is “a cooperative institutional arrangement between public and private actors” (Hodge & Greve, 2007, p.545). Elaborately, it is “a cooperation of some sort of durability between public and private actors, in which they jointly develop products and services and share risks, costs and resources which are connected with these products” (Hodge, Reave & Boardman, 2010, cited in Robertson et al. 2012, p.2). Economists working with international institutions prefer a shorter narrow definition that focuses on a contract drawn by “a government with a private sector provider to get services of a defined quantity and quality at an agreed price for specific a period” (Patrinos et al. 2009, as cited in Robertson et al, 2012, p.6). The preceding definition majorly used by the World Bank may include educational services such as management, maintenance, support services, infrastructure and operation. The OECD defines public-private partnership as “an […] agreement between government and a private partner(s) (that may include the operators and financiers) according to which the private partner(s) deliver the service in such a manner that the service delivery objectives of government are aligned with the profit objectives of the private partner(s) and where the effectiveness of alignment depends on sufficient transfer of risk to the private partner(s) (Roberson et al. 2012, p.6) Miraftab (2004) questions the definitional equivocality inherent in PPPs notably the meanings of ‘private sector’ and ‘public sector’. He queries what form of private sector is referred to in PPPs – “small scale, entrepreneurial businesses or large local or multi-national firms?” (Miraftab, 2004, p.93). He also poses the same question what tiers of national governments are referred to in partnerships – are they local, provincial or national? Miraftab cautions that the loose terminology in the conception of PPPs is not merely innocent but a decoy that permits the interests of a stronger partner to be catered for under the ostensible duty of serving the weak. Neoliberalism which is behind PPPs in education promotes the view that the public sector should not be the sole provider of public services; private companies and communities ought to seize more responsibilities from the state (Miraftab, 2004; Ginsburg, 2012). There is a push for “less of a role for the government and more for the privatization on the grounds that government is inefficient” (Miraftab, 2004, p.91).

Neoliberalism advocates for PPPs as a market-enabling strategy where the private sector gets support from the resources of the government, communities and NGOs (Miraftab, 2004).

4.5. Low-fee private schools Low fee private schools are defined as “private schools that have been set up and are owned by an individual or group of individuals for the purpose of making a profit, and are supposed to be ‘affordable’ for low income families” (Verger et al., 2016, p.89). Other scholars note LFPSs are a “set of independently owned and operated private schools claiming to serve socially and economically disadvantaged groups” (Srivastava, 2013, p. 10). Black Africa is now a site for the growing phenomenon of LFPSs. Unlike other private schools set up and run by NGOs, churches and communities for social, communitarian and religious reason, LFPSs are established for economic or for profit reasons. However both sets of these low fee schools charge low school fees (Verger et al. 2016). LFPSs viewed as a school sector presents a phenomenon whose definition and let alone specific boundaries are contentious in terms of conception (Verger, Fontdevila & Zancajo, 2018). Verger et al. (2018) observe that it is difficult to determine the kind of private schools included and excluded from the category of LFPSs. They aver that semantics about low tuition fee is unclear and very subjective; moreover the point from which a private low school ceases being viewed as low fee cannot be specifically defined universally. Making such determination essentially would depend on the socio-economic context where such schools operate and the economic situation of particular families. Srivastava (2013) outlines some aspects of LFPSs, notably the financing arrangements. These schools are characterised by independently setting lower tuition fees as compared to the elite private schools. The schools are sustained financially through payments from poor or disadvantaged households. They are independently managed. They are owned by a single owner or team, in most cases comprising family members. Most of these schools are found in urban, semi-urban and few, in rural areas. The sector of LFPSs has evolved lately, as some of these schools are part of international business chains. Verger et al. (2016) observe that in a bid to achieve education for all in Black Africa, international organisations and donors have considered integrating PPP with LFPSs. The authors argue that international policy entrepreneurs and transnational corporations are also behind the mushrooming of LFPSs in the region. The integration of LFPs into PPP framework in Black Africa is supported by World Bank and DFID to promote access to education among very poor families whose children are excluded and in situations where national regulations do not allow profit-making in the education system (Patrinos, Barrera-Osorio, & Guáqueta, 2009 as cited in Verger et al., 2016). Support from international organizations for LFPSs implies establishment of formal PPPs between national governments and LFPSs. Bridge International Academies is one of the international chain companies occupying the educational terrain in the region.

4.6. Critical discourse analysis The general view about CDA is that our ways of talking do not neutrally reflect our world, identities and social relations; rather, they play an active role in producing and transforming them (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). CDA provides theories and methods that are crucial for the “empirical

study of the relations between discourse and social and cultural developments in different social domains” (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002, p.60). It is vital to note that the label ‘critical discourse analysis’ is used in two completely different ways. Fairclough uses it both to describe his own approach that he has designed and as the “label for a broader movement within discourse analysis of which several approaches, including his own, are part” (Fairclough & Wodak 1997, cited in Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002, p.60). Despite the fact that there is a broad movement within discourse analysis, CDA approaches share some distinct features. In CDA, the character of social and cultural processes is partly linguistic-discursive (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). In CDA, texts are created or ‘produced’ and ‘consumed’ in what is referred to as discursive practices. Discursive practices are regarded as a vital form of social practice that contributes to the social world fabric. Social identities and social relations are part and parcel of the social world (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). Jørgensen and Phillips (2002) note that it is basically and partly through discursive practices in our daily lives (of text production and consumption) that social and cultural reproduction and change take place. It is vital to note that some societal phenomena may not be associated to the linguistic-discursive character. The authors assert that the aim of CDA is to shed light on linguistic-discursive character of social and cultural phenomena in late modernity; it is therefore common for research in CDA to cover the spread of market practices or democracy. This thesis interrogates market practices in the field of education in Black Africa; these practices are rather ideological and may conceal power relations. Fairclough’s CDA views discourse, ideology and hegemony as major concerns in late modernity. He defines ideology as “meaning in the service of power” (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002, p.75). He sees ideologies as constructions of meaning that make a contribution in producing, reproducing and transforming relations of domination (Fairclough, 1992). Fairclough argues that “ideologies embedded in discursive practices are most effective when they are naturalized, and achieve the status of commonsense” (Fairclough, 1992, p.87). He draws on the work of Gramsci’s concept of hegemony to the effect that both ascribe to the notion of production of meaning in every-day life as a vital role in the maintenance of social order (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). It is Fairclough’s conviction that individuals can be placed within and competing ideologies – leading to a sense of uncertainty. This has an effect of creating the consciousness or awareness of ideological effects (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). This point of view draws on Gramsci’s idea that ‘commonsense’ harbours many competing elements that are a product of negotiations of meaning in which all social groups are participants (Gramsci, 1991, as cited in Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). Not only is hegemony dominance but also a process of negotiation out of which comes forth a consensus concerning meaning. In this case competing elements that exist produce the seeds of resistance. This is because these elements that challenge the dominant meanings equip people with resources of resistance (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). An order of discourse (see chapter 5) in this case should be viewed as the discursive aspect of the “contradictory and unstable equilibrium which constitutes a hegemony, and the articulation and rearticulation of orders of discourse is correspondingly one stake in hegemonic struggle” (Fairclough, 1992, p.93). As such, hegemony is never stable; “changing and incomplete and consensus is always a matter of degree (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002, p.76). Fairclough argues that the concept of hegemony provides a means through which to analyse how discursive practice is part and parcel of a larger social practice that involves power relations.

Therefore, discursive practices should be viewed as an aspect of hegemonic struggle that contributes to the reproduction and transformation of the order of discourse of which it is a constituent member. Discursive change occurs when discursive elements are articulated in new ways (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). In summary, this chapter has presented concepts and theories; Harvey’s theory of space and time is a social theory that expounds social changes in the contemporary neoliberal world. The first four concepts are all neoliberal concepts, all closely interlinked and have been presented in order of relevancy. The first one is the concept of neoliberalism that gives forth to other concepts namely ‘disaster capitalism’, PPPs and LFPSs, the latter being the latest concept in the neoliberal ‘descent’ in this thesis. CDA as theory is presented latest in this section – it is employed as a mirror through which social practice evident in concepts and Harvey’s theory can be understood. The two theories used in this thesis critique the social changes in the present capitalist world. This chapter has specifically presented the most theoretical aspects of CDA. CDA as theory and method will be expounded in the next chapter. The next chapter is methodology.

Chapter Five: Methodology

5.1. Critical discourse analysis This thesis adopts Fairclough’s CDA. Generally “discourse is a particular way of talking about and understanding the world (or an aspect of the world)” (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002, p.1). The central idea to Fairclough’s theory is the view that discourse is both constitutive and constituted. In CDA, “discourse is a form of social practice which both constitutes the social world and is constituted by other social practices. In this case, discourse is in a dialectical relationship with other social dimensions. This means discourse contributes to the “shaping and re-shaping of social structures” but it reflects them as well (p.61).This is as good as saying that other forces too can influence discourse even though such forces do not have the linguistic-discursive component. For instance the structure of a national army and the institutional set up of the mass media can have such a relationship. Jørgensen and Phillips (2002) also note that in CDA language use is empirically analysed within its social context. The authors assert that in CDA, discourse functions ideologically. Discursive practices aid in creating and reproducing unequal power relations between social groups. Examples of such groups could be between women and men, the donors and recipients, the rich and the poor, and so forth. The effects of this relationship are referred to as ideological effects. CDA analysts use the concept of ideology to hypothesise the subjugation of one social group by other social groups. In short, CDA focuses on both the discursive practices that “construct representations

of the world, social subjects and social relations including power relations and the role that these discursive practices play in furthering the interests of a particular social group” (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002, p.63) Fairclough defines critical discourse analysis as an approach which “aims to systematically explore often opaque relationships of causality and determination between (a) discursive practices, events and texts and (b) wider social and cultural structures, relations and processes; to investigate how such practices and events arise out of and are ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggle; and to explore how the opacity of these relationships between discourse and society is itself a factor securing power and hegemony” (Fairclough, 1993, p.135). Fairclough (1993) explains that by opacity he refers the linkages between discourse, ideology and power that could be quite unclear to parties involved; he notes that generally the social practice is implicated and attached to causes and effects that may not be whatsoever plain. CDA is critical in as far as it aims to expose the role of the discursive practice in maintaining the social world, including such social relations that promote unequal relations of power. The goal of CDA is to “contribute to social change along the lines of more equal power relations in communication processes and society in general” (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002, p.64) CDA is not politically neutral in the sense as objectivist social science does; it is an approach that is politically devoted to social change. In a bid to promote emancipation, CDA analytical approaches take the side of the oppressed social groups (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). Critique focuses on uncovering the role of discursive practices in the maintenance of unequal power relations. The overall goal of CDA is to harness the results of CDA for purposes of “struggles for radical social change” (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002, p.64) Fairclough’s approach is the “most developed theory and method for research in communication, culture and society” (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002, p.60). His approach takes into account that discourse is crucial since it is a significant form of social practice that “reproduces and changes knowledge, identities and social relations including power relations” (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002, p.60). At the same time, discourse is also shaped by other social practices and structures. Therefore, discourse is in dialectical relationship with other social dimensions. Fairclough sees social structures as social relationships of any given society as a whole as well as in specific institutions. He also sees social structures as consisting discursive and non-discursive elements (Fairclough 1992). A non-discursive practice can be the physical practice involved in the building of a bridge yet the practices like journalism and public relations are primarily discursive (Fairclough, 1992). Fairclough (1992) argues that social practice has various orientations; these may be cultural, economic, ideological or political yet discourse may be implicated in all of these without any of them being reduced to discourse. He illustrates how there are a number of ways inflation can be said to be a mode of economic practice like figures - a constituent of economic practice of basically of non-discursive nature such as producing washing machines. However, there are some forms of economic practice which are basically of discursive nature like the stock market or soap operas for television. Fairclough’s approach is a text oriented form of discourse that combines three traditions (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002): the close textual and linguistic analysis, the macrosociological

46 tradition which looks at social practice in close connection to social structures, and the interpretivist tradition which views social practice as something produced actively by people in which they make sense on the basis of “shared commonsense procedures” (Fairclough, 1992, p.72). Fairclough uses detailed text analysis to have greater insight in how discursive processes linguistically operate in particular texts (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). He believes textual analysis alone is not satisfactory for discourse analysis; rather there is need to shed light on the links between texts and societal and cultural processes as well as structures (Fairclough, 1992). He recommends an interdisciplinary perspective that combines textual and social analysis. There are benefits from drawing on micro-sociological tradition that considers that social practices are determined by social structures as well as power relations. In most cases, people are not aware of these subtle processes (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). The interpretivist tradition provides an understanding about how people actively create rule-bound world in daily practices (Fairclough, 1992).

5.2. Fairclough’s three-dimensional model Fairclough’s three dimensional model is laden with concepts. His first key concept is discourse. He uses this concept in three different ways. It is language in practice. It is also the kind of language within a specific field. In this case, examples can be legal or scientific discourse. Discourse is also a way of speaking which gives meaning to experiences from a particular perspective (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002, p.66-67). In this case discourse is used as a countable noun – such as: discourse, the discourse, discourses, the discourses. People can talk about a capitalist discourse or environmentalist discourse. Fairclough posits that discourse contributes in the constructing social relationships as well as systems of knowledge and meaning plus social identities (Fairclough, 1993; Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). While carrying out an analysis, focus should be put on two important dimensions of discourse: the communicative event and the order of discourse. A communicative event is any case of language use such as a sermon, a feature in a newspaper (Fairclough, 1995; Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). The order of discourse is a “configuration of discourse types used in any given social institution or social field” (Fairclough, 1995, p.66). Discourse types consist of genres. A “genre is a particular usage of language which participates in, and constitutes part of a particular practice” such as newspaper genre (Fairclough, 1995, p.56). Examples of orders of discourse could be health service or media. Fairclough observes that within an order of discourse, there exist particular discursive practices (text and talk) that are created, consumed or interpreted (Fairclough, 1995; Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999; Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). Such examples within a health order of discourse could be discursive practice between a doctor and a nurse consultation (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). Fairclough designed a method that is very systematic and highly structured to conduct a discourse analysis to fulfill vital objectives in any study (Fairclough, 1992; Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). His objectives aim to combine linguistically–tailored discourse analysis as well as political and social ideas applicable to political discourse and language; this is structured in a frame-work well suited to the social scientific research notably in the study of social change (Fairclough, 1992). This thesis is generally about the use of PPPs to provide basic education in Black Africa. Proponents of PPPs in education such as the donor world in the North contend that this is the best option for Black Africa if it needs to improve its economy and global competitiveness. This thesis is antithetical to this view as stated in chapter one for there appears ideological

implications for the promotion of PPPs in education than is stated in policy papers. That is why this thesis adopts CDA to unpack any concealed information that is not obviously stated in documents. Fairclough views language as a vital tool to cause changes in the status quo as he observes that “[..]critical analysis of discourse is nothing if it is not a resource for struggle against . For me, the whole point and purpose of critical discourse analysis is to provide those in social struggle with a resource for language critique in circumstances where the ‘turn to language’ makes language critique an important part of such struggle. And I think the primary struggle now must be against neo-liberalism” (Fairclough, 2001, p.216) Fairclough designed a three dimensional model to aid in conducting a comprehensive discourse analysis. For every case of language usage there is a communicative event comprising three dimensions. These dimensions are text, discursive practice and social practice (Fairclough , 1995; Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). Text can be a form of writing, speech, visual image or a combination of these. A discursive practice comprises text production and consumption; social practice relates to social structures (Fairclough, 1992; Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002; Ssenyonjo, 2019).

Figure 1.6. Fairclough’s three dimensional model (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002, p.68; Ssenyonjo, 2019, p.11)

5.2.1. Text It is possible to illuminate how discourses are activated textually and arrive at, and provide backing for, a specific interpretation through analyzing the linguistic characteristics of a text by employing particular tools (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). Fairclough proposes a variety of tools for

text analysis such as grammar, metaphors, wording and so forth. These tools provide insight into a number of avenues in which texts treat events as well as social relations and hence construct peculiar versions of reality, social identities and social relations (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). In the following paragraphs, I outline the tools I will use in this thesis at the analysis level. One of the tools is modality, a vital feature in text analysis that focuses on how a writer or speaker expresses his or her degree of affiliation or association to the statement (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). The notion of modality has to do with what people commit themselves to when they make statements or offers (Fairclough, 2003). Other scholars refer to modality as the “speaker’s judgement of the probabilities, or the obligations, involved in what he is saying” (Halliday, 1994, as cited in Fairclough, 2003, p.165). Perhaps the most comprehensive notion about modality is expressed by Verschueren. According to him, modality “involves the many ways in which attitudes can be expressed towards the `pure ' reference-and-predication content of an utterance, signaling factuality, degrees of certainty or doubt, vagueness, possibility, necessity, and even permission and obligation” (Verschueren,1999, cited in Fairclough, 2003, p. 165-166). Modality falls into two broad categories: epistemic modality that has to do with knowledge exchange about the author’s commitment to truth, and deontic modality that deals with activity exchange committing one to obligation or necessity (Fairclough, 2003). Modal verbs as well as tenses express different modalities (Fairclough, 1992). Some examples of modal verbs are may, must and so forth. The Simple Present tense is commonly used to express modalities. Many discourses may use a variety of modalities to express high to low affinity to the ideas expressed. Categorical modalities are employed to express high affinity. Generally, objective modalities (expressing truths) involve a certain form of power and serve to reflect and reinforce authority of a given party (Fairclough, 1992). Sometimes modality can be expressed by ‘hedges’ in which a writer or speaker moderates a statement’s claim in an attempt to express low affinity by using words such as “ a bit”, “well” and so forth (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). In this paper, I will look at modalities to a great degree. In the analysis of transivity, one directs attention to understand how events and processes are connected to the subject and object (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). When an agent in the use of the passive form is omitted, one may describe an occurrence as a natural event without an agent of responsibility. For example: “70 cleaners have been fired” is a passive voice in which the agent (performer or doer) is omitted. The firing of cleaners is taken as a natural occurrence without a responsible agent like the managers of a company who must have done the firing. Therefore the structure of the sentence absolves the managers who must have done the firing of any responsibility. In this case, the effect (firing of workers) is stressed – ignoring the action and process that caused it (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). Nominalisation is another linguistic feature researchers need to examine in text analysis. In this case, a verb is converted into a noun-like word, and a semantic process into an entity (Fairclough, 2003). For instance ‘farmers produce food’ becomes ‘food production’. In nominalisation, a noun substitutes a process in a bid to reduce agency and stress the effect (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). When a process is converted into nominal, there is an effect of back-grounding of the process itself since its tense and modality are not indicated. Usually nominalization is to the effect that a participant (doer) is not specified; this has an effect that ‘who is doing what and to whom’ is left implicit (Fairclough, 1992).

Nominalisation and the passive (covered under transivity), share the potential of omitting the social agent. There are motivations for this occurrence (Fairclough, 1992). In many cases, nominalisation turns concrete into abstracts and processes and activities into states. Once this is done, the new abstract entities can be susceptible to cultural and ideological manipulations (Fairclough, 1992). For example, the advertisement “Good looks can last you a life time” is a nominalisation expressed in the phrase ‘good looks’; this construction is of a relational process such as: “You look good” and this one instance liable to manipulations (Fairclough, 1992, p.183). ‘Good looks’ can be open to cultural manipulations such as: ‘Good looks can be nurtured, improved’ and so forth. I will use nominalization as a tool to analyse the ideological and cultural undertones concealed in texts.

5.2.2. Discursive practice Critical discourse analysis (CDA) researchers focus on discursive practice to examine the processes closely connected with how texts are produced and consumed (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). Discursive practice “is manifested in linguistic forms called ‘texts’ – both in written and spoken language (Fairclough, 1992, p.71). In analyzing discursive practice, we focus on considering if it is involved in the reproduction or consumption of the current discourse order. It is also vital to investigate the effect of this on the social practice (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). In this paper, I focus on discursive practices in relation to intertextuality and interdiscursivity. Interdiscursivity takes place when dissimilar discourses and genres are phrased together in a communicative event. As a result, new articulations of discourses are manifested (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). Discursive practices blended in new ways (interdiscursive mixes) are a prelude and a “push for socio-cultural change (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). However, Jorgensen and Phillips argue that discourses blended together in a conventional manner signify stability of a prevailing order of discourse- hence sustaining the dominant social order. Fairclough (1992, p.118) clarifies that interdicursivity is “a matter of how a discourse is constituted through a combination of elements of orders of discourse” and so it is a form of intertextuality. However, intertextuality “refers to the condition whereby all communicative events draw on earlier events” (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002) such as manifest intertextuality in which “specific other texts are overtly drawn upon within a text” (Fairclough, 1992, p.117). This can be done through citing such text.

5.2.3. Social practice The analysis of text and discursive practice is only complete if it is placed in a wider social context in which these items operate. This is the social practice. The discourse practice should be explained within the nature of the social practice; this becomes the basis for explaining why the discourse practice appears in a way it is; this includes the properties of the discourse practice and its effect on the social practice” (Fairclough, 1992). Fairclough identifies two facets of contextualization. First, he suggests the social matrix of discourse with the aim of specifying the social and hegemonic relations and structures that make the social and discursive practice. The focus here is to notice the sort of institutional and economic conditions to which the discursive practice is subject (Fairclough, 1992; Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002).

This relation with the structures should be analysed to unearth if it is conventional, creative and so forth and what effects it contributes in aspects like reproduction and transformation of such structures (Fairclough, 1992). The second facet is orders of discourse. The purpose is to specify the relationship of the case “of social and discursive practice to the orders of discourse it draws on and the effect of reproducing or transforming orders of discourse to which it contributes” (Fairclough, 1992, p.238). Therefore, doing CDA calls for trans-disciplinary integration of theories under a multi- perspectival framework since the social matrix of discourse demands to “map the partly non- discursive, social and cultural relations and structures that constitute the wider context of the discursive practice” (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002, p.86). Non-discursive aspects of the phenomenon cannot be analysed by discourse analysis alone; rather social theories can be employed (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). In this thesis, CDA ‘integrates’ Harvey’s theory of space and time at the level of analysis. In this case, the social analysis and discourse analysis ‘fruitfully cross-fertilises’ each other in the discourse analytical framework formulated (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999; Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). Both CDA and Harvey’s theory of time and space are critical to the effects of capitalism in late modernity and implicate social structures in creating and aiding social inequalities through ‘flexible accumulation’. It is at this level of analysis of the relationship between discursive practice and the broader social practice that conclusions of the study are drawn (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). Issues to do with social change and ideological effects are analysed at this level. “Does the discursive practice reproduce the order of discourse and thus contribute to the maintenance of the status quo in the social practice? Or has the order of discourse been transformed, thereby contributing to social change? What are the ideological, political and social consequences of the discursive practice? Does the discursive practice conceal and strengthen unequal power relations in society, or does it challenge power positions by representing reality and social relations in a new way?” (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002, p. 87).

5.3. Harvey’s representation of time and space This section is a brief description about the way Harvey’s theory of time and space can be operationalised at textual level. On top of the three dimensional model, further analysis of text focusing on space-times can enrich the analysis of the object of study. Generally, there exists a distinction within representations of time and space notably between representations of location – such as ‘at 7am’, ‘in Stockholm’ and representations of extent (duration, distance) such as ‘for nine hours’, ‘for 10 kilometers’ (Fairclough, 2003). Fairclough provides a variety of linguistic features that contribute to representation of time. One of these is the tense of verbs, for example past, present and future time such as ‘cleaned’, ‘clean’, ‘is going to clean’. Other features are the aspect of verbs, the distinction between progressive and non- progressive as well as adverbials of time (such as ‘that day’, ‘the previous day’, ‘tomorrow evening’). Space and time are social constructs; these are constructed in dissimilar ways in different societies and any change in the way they are constructed is part and parcel of social change (Harvey, 1996, cited in Fairclough, 2003). Fairclough notes that constructions of time and space are tightly

connected so much so that it is hard to separate them. Therefore it is sensible to focus on their “intersection in the construction of different space-times” (Fairclough, 2003, p.151). Different co- existing space-times such as the relationship between ‘global’ and ‘local’ can exist in any social order; therefore one matter for analysis is how “these different space-times are connected to each other” (Fairclough, 2003, p.151). These connections are enacted routinely in our daily lives in events and ways that are chained together; they are built into social practices and networks of social practices. In short, space, time and space-times are constructed in texts on a routine basis (Fairclough, 2003). It is therefore vital to ‘operationalise’ Harvey’s perspective (see 4.1) in the analysis of text; one aspect of this is to chain texts to the chain of (communicative) events together with discursive practices (Fairclough, 2003). In this case, the textual and discursive analysis can be placed in the wider social practice to contextualise the object of study. The construction as well as the interconnection of space-times is existent within specific texts –hence it is a focus for textual analysis (Fairclough, 2003).

5.4. Ontological and epistemological considerations Ontology relates to the form and nature of the social world. The contrasting point of belief is whether there exists a singular objective reality independent of people’s individual perceptions (objectivism) or reality is neither objective nor singular and that a multitude of realities are constructed by individuals (constructivism) (Coe, Waring, Hedges & Arthur, 2017). This thesis takes the constructivist ontological standpoint that views social entities as constructions built on actions and perceptions of social actors (Bryman, 2012). In constructivism realities are comprehended in multiple, intangible and mental constructions; these constructions are more or less ‘true’ but are more or less informed and sophisticated (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). Therefore the ontological aim of constructivism is to make everyone formulate sophisticated and informed constructions and create understanding of social phenomena (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). CDA is an approach of social constructivist discourse analysis which posits that “our ways of talking do not neutrally reflect our world, identities and social relations but, rather, play an active role in creating and changing them” (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002, p.1). My research is a critical study of PPPs in education in late modernity in Black Africa and specifically Liberia; specifically the study examines language usage in documents in the promotion and implementation of neoliberal policies in the region. These policy changes in the implementation of basic education at primary level in Black Africa should be studied through language. Access to reality is through language; people create reality in form of representations of reality that are not simple reflections of pre-existing reality but contribute to constructing it (reality) (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). Under epistemology, the researcher looks at how, what is presumed to exist can be known (Coe, et al., 2017). In social research, the issue in contention is whether the social world should be subjected to a study using a set of principles used in the natural sciences (positivism) (Bryman, 2012). This thesis does not align with that view; rather it takes the epistemological position of interpretivism. This position correlates perfectly with the constructivist ontology which does not view direct knowledge as a possibility (Coe, et al., 2017). Rather knowledge is formulated through a series of processes of interpretation. Such interpretation is reached through accounts and observations of the world that “provide indirect indications of phenomena” (Coe, et al., 2017, p.16).

Further, this thesis adopts interpretivism as this epistemology accommodates the view of subjective meaning of the social action; the logic of research procedure in the study of humans and social institutions demands a dimension that best brings out the distinct nature of people (Bryman, 2012). Since my thesis attempts to understand the neoliberal discourse of PPPs in education by various social institutions and actors, interpretivism appears the best alternative. Beyond the above set of basic beliefs, this thesis falls under the paradigm of critical social science that seeks for transformation and social change in the social world where suffering and all forms of inequalities may be rife (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). My research on neoliberal policies in education notes the importance of discourse as a form of social action that plays a role in producing the social world such as knowledge, identities and social relations, in the same way it plays a role in maintaining particular patterns (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). Albeit reality is constructed through everyday interaction among social actors, formal organizational properties pose constraints on individual actions (Bryman, 2012). In the globalized world, Black Africa is not insulated from international, transnational and supranational organizations that trade educational policies; to a great degree, the national education systems in the region are influenced by global policy actors (Molla, 2019). Therefore, as these institutions impose all forms of organizational properties in Black Africa, and constructions towards such standards evolve, one cannot “say that the formal properties have no element of constraint on individual action” (Byrman, 2012, p.34). For this purpose, this thesis uses CDA to carry out critical research that aims to investigate and analyse issues of power relations in education in Black Africa so that a critique is formulated on which possibilities of social change may be effected (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999; Guba & Lincoln, 1994). Therefore this thesis interrogates the aims, work and effect of global organizational cultures as objective entities that affect particular national educational set up in Black Africa. Fairclough’s CDA recognises discourse and non-discourse aspects in a society – a slight leaning to structural Marxism (Fairclough, 1992, Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). To sustain this train of thought, philosophical comprise is inevitable by drawing on the work of Bourdieu. The ‘rivalry’ between ‘interpretivist’ and ‘structuralist’ in social science should be transcended in preference to Bourdieu’s “constructivist structuralism” or “structuralist constructivism” (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, p.11). This is another view of “seeing and researching social life as both constrained by social structures, and an active process of production which transforms social structures” (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999, p.1). Bourdieu views a social formation as a “bi-dimensional system of relations of power and relations of meaning between groups and classes (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, p.7). Therefore, though meaning of any phenomenon may be a socially constructed, it may affect us with ‘objective reality’. For instance Harvey (1990) states the concept of time is a construct but it affects us with objective reality, whether we follow the hours of the day or not.

5.5. Research strategy and design This thesis adopts a qualitative research strategy. A research strategy is “a general orientation to the conduct of social research,” (Bryman, 2016, p.2). Since the interpretivist epistemological position emphasizes understanding of the social world through interpretation, the adoption of the qualitative research strategy is the best option (Bryman, 2012). This orientation calls for deep detailed analysis of situations which makes qualitative research highly descriptive. CDA begins with a constructivist or subjective ontological position that considers social relations as well as social

53 phenomena in written text are ever in the process of being re-inscribed with meaning (Bartlett & Vavrus, 2017). A research design is a “framework for the generation of evidence that is chosen to answer the research questions in which the investigator is interested” (Bryman, 2016, p.39). This thesis has facets of a qualitative case study. A case study research is particularistic since it focuses on a phenomenon or particular situation (Merrian, 1998, as cited in Edwards Jr, Klees & Wildish, 2017). In particular situations such as this thesis, a case study presents an interest in the process as opposed to the outcomes as well as discovery rather than confirmation (Edwards Jr, Klees & Wildish, 2017). Liberia is the case in this study. The units of analysis are the official documents of the Ministry of Education and a press release by Bridge, one of the partners with the ministry under the Partnership Schools for Liberia (PSL).This case is an exemplifying one (Bryman, 2012) since it presents the contemporary neoliberal forces that are commonplace (Yin, 2003) in Black Africa. Liberia as an exemplifying case epitomises a wide category of neoliberal reforms in education taking shape in the region. It is also, if we follow Bryman (2012) a good case as it provides a suitable context for answering my research questions.

5.6. Selection of materials PPPs in education as a mode of service delivery in Black Africa in late modernity is a new growing trend (Robertson, 2012). With this background information from my previous Specialised Literature paper (Ssenyonjo, 2020), I searched for materials about PPPs in education with the element of basic pre- and primary education or EFA in Black Africa. The first cardinal guide was location – Black Africa, and specifically Liberia and the second was compulsory education. Liberia as a country is the only nation in Black Africa that had partially started privatising its entire basic public education to private providers from 2016. The material search was also limited to public education provision in the region, that is education paid for by the national or regional governments. In the search special focus was on such material that had links to international educational chains of LFPSs as providers of basic public education under PPP arrangement. Therefore those that featured religious organizations and other NGOs as providers of basic education were not considered. The materials selected were also guided by SDGs 1, 4, 5 and 17 as per the response of the United Nations post-2015 agenda. Basic education helps in reducing poverty through employability relating to SDG 1. As stated in (1.1), SDGs 4 and 5 are crucial since they have a bearing on poverty reduction (Goal 1) through employability if quality education and equitable and gender sensitive education (Goal 5) is provided. Quality education and life-long learning, gender equality and partnership for goals (see 1.3) respectively resonate with goals 4, 5 and 17. My sources for material search were predominantly references of research articles about PPPs in education in Black Africa after 2015 – a period for the 2030 Agenda. With close reference to my research questions, I managed to select two vital documents that were closely related. These are The Government of Liberia-Bridge Partnership Concept Note, and The Memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Education – Government of Liberia and Bridge International Academies. The first document provides the rationale and background for PPP and the second gives extensive details of the roles of the government of Liberia (GOL) and Bridge in the PPP as a pilot project. It was through the reading of these two documents that I was able to get the third one – a press release by Bridge entitled: Why we are partnering to radically improve free public education in Liberia. This press release briefly

outlines why Bridge is partnering with GOL in a pilot project in the provision of public basic education. Bridge has very many press releases on its website but I looked for one that was posted closely after GOL and Bridge had signed a MoU in April 2016. All the first, second and third documents are all referenced by name as GOL-Bridge concept note (2016), Ministry of Education - Government of Liberia and Bridge International Academies (n.d.) and Bridge International Academies (2016, April 5) respectively. The concept note is a word file; it is therefore appended should there arise problems in downloading it. In selecting these documents I paid attention to their meaning – internal meaning of the text and intended content of text (Cohen et al. 2018). The advantage of the documents as material is that they are exact (Yin, 2003). The MoU between GOL and Bridge for example details almost everything how the PPP would work.

5.7. Criteria for assessing quality There is a variety of ways to assess quality of research. Quality relates to the notion about what standards research ought to meet so that it counts as qualified academic work (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). In determining the quality of research in CDA, these authors contend that the analysis should follow the three rules of thumb. One, the analysis should be solid so that the interpretation hinges on a variety different textual features as opposed to one feature. Second, the analysis should be comprehensive; the questions posed to the text need to be fully answered. Third, the analysis should be presented in a transparent way so that the claims made may be ‘tested’ by the reader. This can be achieved by reproducing much longer extracts in the presentation of analysis or appending the data resources. In this this thesis both are done; data resources are referenced, and one is both appended and referenced. In sum the philosophical premises, theoretical claims and methodology in CDA should form a complete package (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). Other apt criteria in CDA are the degree to which a researcher acts to erode ignorance and misapprehensions. The work is evaluated in terms of the extent it provides an input to action, that is a call for change or transformation of existing social structure (Guba and Lincoln, 1994). This is the same view shared by Cohen et al. (2018) when they write about catalytic validity as a suitable option for assessing quality. They argue the research should spur action by making participants understand their situation in order to create equality, social justice and empowerment. Theoretical triangulation is another option of assessing quality in CDA (Wodak & Meyer, 2009). In this regard, four different levels of context are focused on namely: “immediate language, interdiscusive relations, immediate social context and broad social context” (Mullet, 2018, p.121). This is slightly related to what Potter (1996) suggests when he calls for coherency in a body of discourse produced during analysis. Potter (1996) suggests that the analysis should create a discourse that is bound together. In other words, the discursive structure should show how it produces effects and functions. This thesis adopts Fairclough’s three dimensional model of CDA. Coherence is key in the process of using his analysis as several measures are taken to meet the quality criteria. The text internal coherence with macro structures as well as situation and intertextual context are vital aspects to the analyst (Gölbaşı, 2017). In this research triangulation is attained through textual, discursive and social practice analyses. Moreover, Harvey’s theory of time and space is operationalized at textual analysis to further understand the neoliberal forces in late modernity, hence adopting a multi-

perspectival approach (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). Many textual features are analyzed at textual level namely transivity, modality, nominalization and space-times. This thesis adopts a multi-perspectival approach as stated above. Three textual features in Fairclough’s three-dimensional model namely transivity, modality and nominalisation aid to unearth issues that may point to same themes in all the three documents. In some cases similar extracts are subjected to the three textual features to thoroughly answer the research questions. In addition to these tools, space-times as a textual feature at micro-textual level also links the themes therein to the wider social practice. For example, it is through space-times that themes in the text are connected to ‘local’ (‘national’), ‘regional’ and ‘global’ space-times. This means that the text as a print material is connected in ‘real’ situation to spatial locations that exist. This cannot be achieved by CDA features alone. These space-times are also connected to social identities and social relations as both are implicated in the construction of different space-times. All this can only be illustrated during the analysis. Therefore this combination of tools at textual level, together with discursive and social practice analyses presents the results of this inquiry with some high degree of credibility.

5.8. Ethical considerations Issues about ethics in social research concerns with the role of values in the process of conducting research such how participants are treated by the investigator (Bryman, 2016). No expectation with issues of ethics was anticipated in this research. The data analysed are public documents available online. There were no issues to do with consent or privacy that were encountered in the research process (Swedish Research Council, 2017). Since no physical persons or personal information was used in the materials analysed, issues to do with secrecy, confidentiality and anonymity (Swedish Research Council, 2017) did not apply to this research. Neither was there any need to store, archive or delete any data (Swedish Research Council, 2017) used since only public documents were used. Despite the fact public documents were used in this research, there is a moral leaning by the researcher to erode ignorance (Guba & Lincoln, 1994) among the people of Liberia about PPPs in education. This is line with aim of critical social research that calls for transformation in society where cases of injustice and inequality are rife (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). In summary, this chapter has outlined the methods, ethical issues and philosophical considerations this thesis follows to fulfill the study’s objectives. The next chapter is about analysis and results in this inquiry.

Chapter Six: Analysis and results

The aim of this thesis is to explore the kind of proposed basic education services provided under PPPs with LFPSs. Specifically this thesis attempts to understand the nature of educational reforms advocated in PPPs with LFPSs, probes the nature of the relationship between government and private sector bodies in PPPs and locate the power within these relationships, and attempts to identify the equity and inclusiveness in the basic education services provided by PPPs with LFPSs. The following research questions drive this inquiry: a)To what educational challenges are PPPs with LFPSs promising policy solutions in Liberia? b) How are these challenges and solutions articulated in the documents? c)What discourse is constructed about basic education in Liberia in the documents? In this chapter , the thesis centres on the analysis of three sources of material about Liberia, one of the countries from Black Africa. The materials are: The Government of Liberia-Bridge Partnership Concept Note, The Memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Education – Government of Liberia and Bridge International Academies, and a press release by Bridge entitled: Why we are partnering to radically improve free public education in Liberia. The thesis analyses content using Fairclough’s three dimensional model. Under textual analysis, the focus is on modality, transivity and nominalisation. In addition, the operationalisation of Harvey’s theory of time and space is carried out under textual analysis. Fairclough (2003) provides a guide on how a researcher can operationalise Harvey’s theory as explained earlier in section (5.3). Thereafter, discursive practice is analyzed. Social practice analysis will not be handled under this chapter; rather it will be analysed in chapter seven under discussion. There are two reasons: one is to make this chapter a little shorter and easy to follow and social practice analysis relates to a wider social context, which makes it fit under discussion. In the extracts displayed, words and phrases referred to in the analysis are underlined. Under the subsection of space-time in the textual analysis, words and phrases denoting to place are underlined and those to time are bolded. In chapter five of this thesis, the sub-section of Harvey’s representation of time and space (5.3) comes after Fairclough’s three-dimensional model (5.2.). In the process of analysis in this chapter however, space-times appears within Fairclough’s three dimensional model under textual analysis. The reason for this is the fact that space-times is a textual feature, best analysed under text. The two theories –Harvey’s theory of space and time and Fairclough’s CDA are ‘integrated’ in the analysis. Therefore, space-times does not appear later in this chapter as it does in chapter five, rather it is part and parcel of textual analysis 6.1. Government of Liberia-Bridge partnership: Concept note This concept note is a summary of the intended public-private partnership between the Government of Liberia and Bridge International Academies and any other subsequent provider of private education. It is a five-page document but the analysis will majorly focus on the first three pages. The last two pages focus on the budget which is outside the scope of this thesis.

6.1.1. Textual analysis As explained in chapter five, textual analysis in this section will focus on four features of text: modality, transivity, nominalization and space-times; the latter is an operationalisation of Harvey’s theory of space and time.

6.1.1.1. Modality In describing the education system in Liberia the text employs epistemic modality, painting a grim picture of the educational outcomes in the country. The text uses present tenses and modal verbs to create high modality to truth claims. “Poverty relief will only come about with advances in education. The literacy rate of 15-24 years olds is 54%. Since 2006, we have spent a lot in the education sector, but learning outcomes are still wanting. Only 17% of grade 3 children tested can read an adequate number of words per minute. Students are finishing their education illiterate and unable to move onto further education, employment...”p.1 In some sections, the text employs a combination of participial phrases and the present simple tense to create epistemic modality, in a bid to explain the poor education system in Liberia. In the same sentence, however the modal verb (will) is modalised with a modal adverb (more easily). “Without literacy and employability improving, young people are without hope and will more easily resort to violence.”p.1 The use of epistemic modality in the above sentence helps to create identity of the young population in Liberia – a generation with limited future prospects. This identity created calls for a change in the status quo in the education system. To justify for a change in the public education system, the text again uses ‘epistemic’ modality, painting teachers as the root cause of the problems. “At the root of these problems are poor quality teachers, low teacher attendance, too few school hours spent in the classroom, poor incentives for teachers to perform (no assessment of teacher performance, and student learning outcomes are not measured until the 9th grade” p.2 The use of epistemic modality specifically categorical objective modality as illustrated above is a reflection and re-enforcement of authority and more often than not an implication of power (Fairclough, 1992; Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002; Ssenyonjo, 2019). In the preceding illustration, there is a clear claim that the public education system in Liberia is poor and thus it is failing the young generation. On top of these problems are the teachers of poor quality, leading to poor learning outcomes. On the other hand, there is identity created in the text about Bridge, a LFPS company the Liberian government wants to contract to run the primary public schools. The text uses timeless present tense to create categorical objective modality. “Bridge pupils reach fluency in reading twice as fast as those in neighbouring schools - almost 10 more words per minute. Comprehension also improves: students answer 9.4% more problems correctly than neigbhouring counterparts. For maths, students answer 11.9% more quantitative discrimination questions correctly. Their private schools are opening up in

Uganda and Nigeria, as well as Kenya. In the Indian State of Andra Pradesh, they are trialling a government-owned model, more similar to what we want to try in Liberia.”p.2 The text above also uses modal adverbs to create truth claims such ‘correctly’. In this case, Liberian government claims that Bridge can turn around the low literacy and numeracy rates in the education system. The above text uses categorical objective modality which signifies power and authority in society (Fairclough, 1992) as earlier mentioned above. The text uses a modal verb (will) and –ing participials to create obligational claims in ensuring that education can still remain a public good and a human right once a partnership between the state and the private provider of education takes place. Although the text uses –ing participials, the sense in the tense used is the present simple because it is about routine or repeated actions. “GOL will be the contractor – holding the providers to rigorous performance standards and controlling how the system works. For example, ensuring access to basic education is always free, defining performance standards ….defining teacher pay levels, controlling the curriculum, selecting the examining boards in use, ensuring school buildings and the school environment is safe for children. GOL will also be responsible for taking care of the long term ‘health’ of the sector.” p.2 The text above creates deontic modality signifying its authority over the implementation of a PPP with LFPS. In other parts of the text, modality is achieved through reported speech. In this case, commitment to truth is attributed to others, thereby lowering the commitment to the claim (Fairclough, 2003). However in this text, the reported speech is attached to a big institution to advance legitimation of the claim. “The government needs to test that the Bridge model, assessed by McKinsey as successful in Kenya and Uganda, can work with non-fee paying schools.”p.3 Since McKinsey is an international company with enviable repute, its assessment on a company like Bridge creates credibility. In effect, the text’s claim attains high modality. The text also uses high modality, but again modalises the claim in the same sentence. This creates uncertainties at the same time. “The pilot will be trialled in (Monrovia? Harper? Elsewhere?)”p.3 What is clear is that the pilot will be trialled but the location may or may not be those places indicated. The question marks in this case create doubt. Such modalised claims are difficult to pin down, but power and authority may be at play in such circumstances. Harper is the capital city of Maryland County in Liberia and Monrovia is the capital city of Liberia. Bridge, as will be illustrated in the second document prefers urban areas. Therefore, power relations in the above texturing may not be ignored. The opening and ending of the text uses both epistemic and deontic modality, creating both truth and obligation claims respectively. “The government has two years to create the start of a lasting impact on learning outcomes in Liberia. We will not compromise on our commitment to basic education that is free at the point of use.” p.1

“Liberia’s poverty can never be addressed without adequate education for children and young people. To supply this, we need to turn around learning outcomes. Without completing these reforms, children will continue to receive inadequate teaching and learning outcomes - another generation will be failed.” p.7 Modality here helps to paint a picture that there is need for change, and this can be done through having a PPP. The identity created about the public education system is dismal. On the other hand, the identity that has been created about the private providers – Bridge, is angelic. The last sentence carries a claim that indeed there is no alternative save that of completing the reforms. “First person” statements in the text in the introduction and conclusion mark modality. These statements have the effect of creating identification. This means the writer or speaker of any utterance identifies him/herself with the people he or she ‘conscripts’ to raise consensus about any cause. This device can conceal hidden motives of writers and speakers as they attempt to be speaking on the behalf of others, or they are part of that group they purport to defend or support. The statements below are numbered for easy reference. 1.“We will not compromise on our commitment to basic education [….] 2. But, just as we have private providers of an end service in other sectors […] 3. We believe that there is expertise and innovation that non-state providers can bring […..] 4. We have seen this first hand by visiting some of the successful models already operating in Africa”p.1 5. “To supply this, we need to turn around learning outcomes. 6. Our schools are failing Liberian children and making them unable to perform [..”] p.5 In the above text, ‘we’ refers to the government of Liberia like in sentences 1, 2 and 3. ‘We’ however also refers the people of Liberia, collectively like in sentence 5 and 6. In sentence 6, ‘we’ is implicitly implied by ‘our’. ‘We’ may also refer to a few ministry officials like in sentence 4. These ‘we statements’ in the text above create high modality, but they have further implications. The power of making statements on behalf of others, or on behalf of ‘all of us’ is a power that harbours “uneven social distribution”, and is vital for purposes of identification (Fairclough, 2003, p.172). It is questionable whether all Liberians including religious leaders, pupils, parents and so forth all agree that learning outcomes can only be altered through a PPP with LFPSs.

6.1.1.2. Nominalisation In the text, nominalization is used sparingly. Few cases are analysed. In the example below, literacy and employability are nominals; they are the subject of improving. “Without literacy and employability improving, young people are without hope and will more easily resort to violence.”p.1 In the above statement, improving is used as an intransitive verb. There is no agency, for example who improves literacy and employability is absent. They are assumed to be natural processes, happening on their own. In this case, whoever is responsible for improving literacy and employability is omitted. In this case we notice the Government of Liberia (GOL) absolves itself from the responsibility of ensuring that literacy and employability levels are worked on.

There is also a string of nominalisation in the text notably to do with teachers in Liberia. “At the root of these problems are poor quality teachers, low teacher attendance, too few school hours spent in the classroom, poor incentives for teachers to perform (no assessment of teacher performance, and student learning outcomes are not measured until the 9th grade).” p.1 In the above text, agency of the underlined nominalisation is omitted. Who produces poor quality teachers and who checks teacher attendance? Who spends too few school hours in the classroom? Who provides teacher incentives? Who assesses teacher performance? Who is responsible for measuring student learning outcomes? All the above questions cannot be answered as agency is omitted through nominalisation. A close examination of the text reveals that the above problems are structural. Teachers cannot be wholly culpable for those failings – such as measuring student learning outcomes. The motive in using nominalisation in this case is to conceal power relations and paint a negative picture of the teaching force. As such, cultural and ideological manipulations are implicated in such constructions (Fairclough, 1992). Nominalisation usage is an important aspect of a highly “influential genre in new capitalism and policy formation” (Graham, 2001, cited in Fairclough, 2003, p.146). The fact that this text uses nominalisations signifies that some information is omitted.

6.1.1.3. Transivity The text uses an exceptionally high degree of activated social actors on every page. This means the active voice is predominant throughout the text. There are few cases where the passive voice is used. All paragraphs on each page of the text have statements and phrases in the active voice. A close examination of such statements reveals that prominence of agency is deliberate; illustrations of this are outlined below. “We will not compromise on our commitment to basic education that is free...” “We believe that there is expertise and innovation that non-state providers can bring.” “We intend to start a pilot with Bridge International.”p.1 All the above statements have explicit subjects and objects/predicates, all with a clear message for change. All statements have one agent (we) which refers to the GOL. The agent wants to start a pilot, cannot compromise on its commitment and believes in innovation in the education sector. In this case, the social actors (GOL) ‘makes things happen’, so it is activated (Fairclough, 2003); such choice is consistent throughout the text, so it has ideological implications (Fairclough, 1989). In the above text, the GOL is set to privatize the provision of public primary education and such choice is necessary for clear communication of social change in new capitalism. Agents are activated in the text to achieve the purpose of clarity in two contrasting ways: one to paint a dismal picture of public education in Liberia and two, to glorify the work of Bridge in its provision of private education. In both cases, the agency is activated to make the message prominent. The following statements castigate Liberian education system. “Only 17% of grade 3 children tested can read an adequate number of words per minute...In 2013, all 25,000 school-leavers who applied to university in Liberia failed the entrance exam: “students lacked enthusiasm and did not have a basic grasp of English… Students are finishing their education illiterate and unable to move onto further education” p.1

In the above text the social actors are represented by category (children, students) but not as Liberian children. However, on top of representing the social actors in the text below as academically promising, they are represented by name (Bridge pupils). “Bridge pupils reach fluency in reading twice as fast as those in neighbouring schools... For maths, students answer 11.9% more quantitative discrimination questions correctly...”p.2 Activating the social actors in both the above examples give them prominence, but the effect depends on the message. Public education system in Liberian is dehumanised and private education is glorified. Naming the social actors specifically by name like “Bridge pupils” may have ideological implications (Fairclough, 1989) since Bridge as a company is given credence as a good service provider yet Liberian children who are generalized (pupils, students) (Fairclough, 2003) are indistinct. The text has two interesting set of statements, one of which is stated below. It is a ‘Subject + verb + Object’ type but the agency is not clear. “Without completing these reforms, children will continue to receive inadequate teaching and learning outcomes…” ‘Children’ is a subject, but not as real agent making things happen but rather as people fated to have things happen to them. The events happen to children (receive inadequate teaching). Who provides the inadequate teaching and learning outcomes? In this example, agency is obfuscated and this can be ideologically motivated (Fairclough, 1989). The construction omits the education system responsible for education. This back-grounding of information conceals who is responsible for the failures in education. Another interesting example of activation related to the above is where the subject is “an untypically inanimate agent of action process” (Fairclough, 1989, p.123). “Our schools are failing Liberian children and making them unable to perform in WAEC exams…”p.7 In the above example, the agency of ‘failing Liberian children and making them unable to perform’ is attributed to the schools (‘our schools’) yet it would be attributed to people controlling the institutions. This kind of texturing is rife in new capitalism. Concealing agency in inanimate subject constructions is also a way of hiding power relations. The last aspect of transivity this text harbours is the passivation of social actors. “At present Liberian learning outcomes are assessed for the first time in Year 9.”p.3 “Without completing these reforms…. another generation will be failed.” p.7 In the above statements, we have agentless passive voice. Such omission is deliberate. The text blames the poor education system without detailing who should administer the assessments. Collectively, the text seems to paint a picture that the public system, to which the teachers belong, is to blame. The text deliberately elides who will fail the entire generation of children in the last statement. The obfuscation of agency through use of agentless passive statements is common with the advance of new capitalism in the education sector.

6.1.1.4. Space-times In the following extract, textual elements which are relevant to the construction of time are in bold text and those relevant to the construction of space are underlined. The below note outlines a proposal for a partnership between the Government of Liberia (GOL) and private providers of education. The government has two years to create the start of a lasting impact on learning outcomes in Liberia. We will not compromise on our commitment to basic education that is free at the point of use. But, just as we have private providers of an end service in other sectors, while the service to the user remains publicly funded, we believe that there is expertise and innovation that non-state providers can bring into how we run high standard, excellent schools. We have seen this first hand by visiting some of the successful models already operating in Africa. p.1 In the extract there is motion in the different temporalities that are actualised in the shifting of tense, aspect of the verb as well as adverbs of time (two years). The shift is the simple present (‘outlines’, ‘has’), to the future tense (‘will not compromise’), then back to the present simple (‘have’, ‘remains’, ‘believe’, ‘is’) to modal (‘can bring’), back to present simple (‘run’), then to the present perfect (‘have seen’) and lastly to the progressive (‘visiting’, ‘operating’). The shifting of tense and aspect of the verb in the above extract is in close relationship with space, creating space-times of school reforms. In the extract the space-time of school reforms is constructed as a relationship between the immediate past (‘we have seen’) – (realised by the present perfect), the present simple (‘outlines’, ‘has’, ‘believe’) and the future (‘will not compromise’). In this extract three aspects of space-times of school reforms are recognised. They are realised through spatial and non-spatial specifications. There is the ‘local’ space-time of school reform whose spatial specifications are ‘Liberia’ and ‘government of Liberia (GOL)’. What is ‘local’ in this context is relative as ‘local’ here is in fact ‘national’. Then there is the ‘regional’ space-time of school reforms with ‘Africa’ as spatial specification and ‘some of the successful models’, ‘there’, ‘high standard’ and ‘excellent schools’ as non-spatial specifications. Lastly there is the ‘global’ space-time of school reforms, whose spatial specifications are indefinite (‘private providers of education’, ‘non-state providers’). There is a special way in which the ‘global’ space-time of school reforms is constructed. It is actualised with the use of the timeless present – also known as the present simple (‘outlines’, ‘is’, ‘believe’). The description of space in the ‘global’ space-time of school reforms is achieved by using non-specific common nouns (‘non-state providers’, ‘private providers of education’) – giving the idea of their existence as ‘everywhere’ and ‘nowhere’, therefore ‘global’. Likewise the construction of ‘global’ space-time of school reforms actualised using the timeless present suggests not the present time but “un-delimited timespan” (Fairclough, 2003, p.153). It implies the temporality of school reforms as a process that exists over and above specific areas of any given location. In that sense, it is global. In the extract above the ‘global’ space-time of school reforms is linguistically marked not only by verb tense but by generic ‘we’ (Fairclough, 2003). In the statement: “we will not compromise…”, ‘we” refers to the people of Liberia, the parents of Liberia, and so forth. This example illustrates that the representation of space-times is not reduced to representation of time and space. Rather it is vital

to acknowledge that “particular spatio-temporalities are interlinked with particular social relations and social identities” (Fairclough, 2003, p.153). The text has many instances of ‘local’, ‘regional’ and ‘global’ space-times of school reforms realised through verb tense and spatial vocabulary. Space-times of school reforms are manifested elsewhere in the text. They are constructed mainly by verb tense and spatial specifications as seen below. Private providers of education in the developing world are tackling these problems in a number of ways. Bridge international is one of those providers. It addresses the above problems by: Providing the curriculum, down to each lesson plan and its learning activities, on a tablet; updating lessons in response to observed learning outcomes. Bridge pupils reach fluency in reading twice as fast as those in neighbouring schools - almost 10 more words per minute. Comprehension also improves: students answer 9.4% more problems correctly than neigbhouring counterparts. For maths, students answer 11.9% more quantitative discrimination questions correctly. Their private schools are opening up in Uganda and Nigeria, as well as Kenya. In the Indian State of Andra Pradesh, they are trialling a government-owned model, more similar to what we want to try in Liberia. p. 1 &2. In the above extract, the timeless present (‘addresses’, ‘reach’,’ improves’, ‘answer’, ‘want’) and the progressive (‘are tackling’ , ‘providing’, ‘updating’, ‘opening up’, ‘trialling’) are used to realize the undelimited timespan as well as the ever occurring presence respectively of space-times of school reforms in the world. ‘Global’ space-time of school reforms needs further explanation. Private providers located ‘nowhere’ and ‘everywhere’ have presence in the ‘developing world’ – located not only in Black Africa but also presumably in Asia and Latin America. The use of the progressive (‘tackling’, ‘providing’, ‘up-dating’) helps to construct the pervasive presence of this phenomenon of school reforms. The ‘global’ space-time of school reforms takes a technological twist to effect space-time compression (Harvey, 1990). Lesson plans and content located at one point in the world is delivered in a classroom (tablet) in real time by a simple touch or click on a technological device. There is ‘regional space-time of school reforms (‘Uganda’, ‘Kenya’ ‘Nigeria’) that naturally merges with ‘global’ space-times (Indian state of Andra Pradesh), again linking back to the ‘local’ (national’) – Liberia. This is constructed in such a way that the progressive (‘opening up’, ‘trialling’) is made use of. The shifting of space-time of school reforms from ‘local’ (‘The government’) to ‘global’ (‘Bridge model’, McKinsey) to regional (‘Kenya’, ‘Uganda’) to ‘local’ ( ‘non-fee paying schools’) is constructed using the timeless present (‘move’, ‘want’, ‘needs’ ) as seen in the extract below. “As we move to contract out schools on a year by year basis, we want to have as much learning as possible. The government needs to test that the Bridge model, assessed by McKinsey as successful in Kenya and Uganda, can work with non-fee paying schools.” p.2 “Liberia’s poverty can never be addressed without adequate education for children and young people. To supply this, we need to turn around learning outcomes. Our schools are failing Liberian children and making them unable to perform in WAEC exams, university, or to gain employment. Without completing these reforms, children will continue to receive inadequate teaching and learning outcomes - another generation will be failed.” p.5 McKinsey and Company is an international consultancy firm, and in this extract it helps in the construction of the ‘global’ space-time of school reforms. The relationship between ‘global’ space-

time (‘McKinsey’, ‘Bridge model’) ‘regional’ space-time (‘Kenya’, ‘Uganda’) and the ‘local’ or ‘national’ (‘the government’) is that the latter (‘local’ or ‘national’) is framed by the former two space-times (‘global’ and ‘regional’). The ‘regional’ and ‘global’ space-times are constructed as factual and genuine in a series of statements in the material – hence constructing and framing them as the best policy reforms. In the above extract, modality is very important. The ‘regional’/’global’ space-time is the ‘policy world’ of what ‘is’ whereas the ‘local’(‘national’) space-time of school reforms is ‘what should be’. In the last statement of the extract modality is explicit that: “Without completing these reforms, children will continue to receive inadequate teaching and learning outcomes - another generation will be failed.” p.5 Therefore completing ‘regional’/’global’ school policy reforms must be effected if Liberia wants to attain better learning outcomes. There is another space-time in the text; this is the space-time of education for poverty reduction. This space-time is constructed with the aid of tense and spatial specifications as seen below. “Students are finishing their education illiterate and unable to move onto further education, employment or to create entrepreneurial opportunities that will take them out of poverty.” P.1 “Liberian children and making them unable to perform in WAEC exams, university, or to gain employment” p.5 This space-time is constructed as a relationship between the present (‘are finishing’) and the future (‘unable to move onto’, ‘will take’). It is also constructed as a relationship between a failed school public school system)’schools are failing’) and a failed generation (‘unable to perform’, ‘gain employment’). This space-time of education for poverty reduction is basically ‘local’ or ‘national’ (‘Liberian children’); the focus is the urgent need to change the system to a PPP with LFPSs. In this document, the space-time of school reforms and space-time of education for poverty and have been analysed. The former has variations such as the ‘local’ or ‘national’, ‘regional’ and ‘global’ space-times. The latter has no variations; it is basically ‘local’ or ‘national’. Analysing space-times in this document reveals that the global forces of capitalism in late modernity are occupying even the remotest spaces on earth using technology as well as a plethora of networks and connections at local and regional levels. The space-time in this documents binds people as explained above, implying that it is not limited to spatio-temporal aspects alone. These examples of ‘national’/’local’, ‘regional’ and ‘global’ space-times help to locate the relationship between movers of policy and how they are interconnected. Changes in educational are affected from all angles and space-time in this case helps to locate the power within governments, private providers and the people such as children and teachers who are implicated within these forces. In this section of textual analysis, four features have been analysed in great detail. First, modality, nominalisation and transivity, all connected to Fairclough’s CDA have been analysed as text as text. Space-times, connected to Harvey’s theory of space and time has also been analysed under text following Fairclough’s operationalisation guideline (Fairclough, 2003).

6.1.2. Discursive practice

Generally the text has a high degree of interdiscursivity. On a whole the text draws heavily on neoliberal discourse, creating an interdiscursive mix that is easily noticeable. The title of the text: “GOL [Government of Liberia] - private provider partnership” is an interdiscursive blend that sets the tone of the text. Traditional ‘government business’ discourse (‘GOL’) blends with the neoliberal one (‘private provider partnership’) to set the kind of discourse that pervades the entire document. In its provision of public basic education, the GOL seeks the services of private providers to make a “lasting impact” on learning outcomes. In this case, there are elements of ‘commodity advertising’ discourse that suggests PPP with LFPSs is a profitable undertaking worth implementing. In some cases, traditional ‘government business’ discourse (‘while the service to the user remains publicly funded’) is articulated with neoliberal market discourses (‘expertise and innovation’), simultaneously merging with ‘promotional’ discourse (‘excellent schools’ ‘successful models’). “[…] while the service to the user remains publicly funded, we believe that there is expertise and innovation that non-state providers can bring into how we run high standard, excellent schools. We have seen this first hand by visiting some of the successful models already operating in Africa.” (p.1) This kind of discourse majorly draws on neoliberal discourse, creating a complex interdiscursive mix. Traditional ‘government business’ discourse (‘The GOL’, ‘maintaining government control’, partners and education’) draws on neoliberal’s ‘new public management’ discourse (‘contract out’, ‘performance management’, ‘proven performance’). In this case, GOL seeks to contract out its public primary schools with a claim that it will lead in the improvement of children’s learning outcomes. New public management as a way of improving public service delivery is a management style in which the private sector is considered the best sector to deliver services and the government (public sector) concentrates on policy and quality assurance (Verger et al., 2017). “The GOL, partners and education economists will develop the standards, selection criteria and performance management framework for a larger scalable public-private partnership (PPP). The intention is to contract out all primary and Early Childhood Education schools over the next 5 years, whilst maintaining government control of the education system. This expansion will only take place based on proven performance.”p.2 This interdiscursive mix rhymes perfectly with the PPP with LFPSs that GOL and Bridge intend to implement; in this text government seeks to draw on private education expertise. However the document does not explicitly state in clear details how the performance will be improved other than stating the idea of testing pupils in numeracy and literacy. The text draws on neoliberal discourse, notably ‘commodity advertising’ discourse and makes use of ‘conversational’ discourse in its framing of public-private interaction realised in this business cooperative set up. “Bridge pupils reach fluency in reading twice as fast as those in neighbouring schools […] Education is a public good and a human right. How will GOL uphold these responsibilities? This is exactly why the partnership is being developed. GOL will be the contractor – holding the providers to rigorous performance standards…”p.2

In the above example, there is increasing blurring between state and private enterprise in which human right realisation and provision of public services like education attract different players The text harbours a ‘modernist’ neoliberal discourse; the use of modern technology in classroom instruction, pupil attendance and assessment of learners all combine tools of accountability to heighten service provision in education. “There are regular learning assessments so that student learning and teacher performance can be consistently assessed and improved; these are transmitted over cellular networks.” (p.2) One of the neoliberal discourses the text draws on is that of ‘personal quality’ discourse. The private providers will start “creating ‘change maker’ teacher and principal training programme”. (p.4) This is meant to create a formidable pool of personnel in the partnership. The formation of identity (‘change maker’) is important for the neoliberals since it describes their ethos. Traditional ‘government business’ discourse (‘maintaining government standards’) is articulated together with the ‘neoliberal’ discourse (‘quick improvement’, ‘range of PPs’, ‘fair competition’) creating an interdiscursive mix that signals for social change as seen in the extract below. “We want to see quick improvements in outcomes and fair competition to ensure value for money. Therefore, in parallel, to starting this pilot, we will establish the policy framework to scale the PPP nationally, maintiaining [sic] government standards while engaging with a wider range of competitors.” (p.2) Other parts of the text show the articulation of traditional ‘government business’ discourse with ‘neoliberal’ discourse, creating an interdiscursive mix as well. “The government also needs to test how a private provider goes about building a community of engaged teachers from the existing civil service? How many teachers will pass the provider’s standards? This will have great influence on employment of teachers, which is of critical concern to the GOL and must be tracked closely.” (p.3). In the above extract, traditional ‘government business’ discourse (‘the government’, ‘civil service’ ‘GOL’) is articulated with the ‘neoliberal’ discourse (‘engaged teachers’, ‘pass the provider’s standards’). Interdiscursivity is widespread in the text, with traditional ‘government business’ discourse fusing with ‘neoliberal’ discourse and then narrowing down to ‘technocratic’ discourse, hence creating a form of interdiscursive complex. “While the pilot is being tested, GOL will work with partners and experts to define the legal framework and standards for a nationwide partnership with private providers [….] The discussion will take place with the major donors to the project, experts in PPP contracting in education, and will include consultation with private providers.” (p.3) In the text above extract, ‘traditional government’ discourse (‘GOL’, ‘donors’) is articulated with ‘neoliberal’ discourse ( ‘partners’, ‘partnership’, ‘private providers’, ‘PPP’) which also fuses with ‘technocratic’ discourse (‘partners and experts’, ‘experts in PPP’). This interdiscursive complex is a signal for social change in late modernity (Fairclough, 2003). Traditional ‘government business’ discourse ( ‘GOL’, ‘donors’, ‘government of Liberia’) is articulated together with ‘new public management’ discourse (‘M&E plan’, ‘performance

67 measures’, ‘performance–based contracting’, ‘results’) which simultaneously fuses with ‘technocratic’ discourse (‘education economists’) again creating a complex interdiscursive mix. These discourses are articulated together which gives rise to perceptions about education being interpreted in diverse ways. The construction of educational reforms in this document therefore may show there is no alternative to improving education in Liberia through strengthening the current government structures but a kind of complete total change in the status quo. This requires the adoption of a PPP with LFPSs. In this text, ‘disaster capitalism’ discourse is also noticed in the description of Liberia and its education system. There is a crisis constructed that Liberia is in a very poor economic state and so is its population. The ‘disaster’ or crisis created in this document is the idea that 64% of Liberians are below the poverty line, the literacy rates of youths is low (54%), students are failing university entry examinations, and so forth. “Liberia is the sixth poorest country in the world with 64% of people below the poverty line. Poverty relief will only come about with advances in education. The literacy rate of 15-24 years olds is 54%. Since 2006, we have spent a lot in the education sector, but learning outcomes are still wanting. Only 17% of grade 3 children tested can read an adequate number of words per minute; 47% of the 27,600 students who sat the Senior High Exam (WAEC) in 2014 failed. In 2013, all 25,000 school-leavers who applied to university in Liberia failed the entrance exam: “students lacked enthusiasm and did not have a basic grasp of English”. Students are finishing their education illiterate and unable to move onto further education, employment or to create entrepreneurial opportunities that will take them out of poverty” p.1 In the above extract, ‘disaster capitalism’ discourse is transcended by ‘corporate opportunism’ discourse. Poverty in Liberia can only be checked by advances in education – and not any other type of education but one provided under a PPP with LFPSs. For more than ten years, Liberia has spent a lot of money (‘since 2006, we have spent a lot’). Therefore the best type of education Liberia needs is that through a PPP with LFPSs. This ‘corporate opportunism’ discourse merges with the all- encompassing ‘neoliberal’ discourse at the end of the extract (‘...finishing their education illiterate and unable to move onto further education, employment’). According to the neoliberals, education should be advanced for purposes of employment and creation of entrepreneurial opportunities. Education is not regarded as a vital aspect of citizenship nor democracy. ‘Disaster capitalism’ discourse is again noticeable in the following extract. Young people who are illiterate are constructed as a group without hope and are prone to violence. “The SDGs link education to reducing poverty and maintaining peace and stability. These goals are essential to Liberia, especially as an election approaches. Without literacy and employability improving, young people are without hope and will more easily resort to violence. This is why we are ready to take radical action to see a step change in education.” (p.1) For this reason, there is need to take a radical step to change the education system set up to one based on PPPs with LFPSs. In the above case, spaces of disaster are constructed so that changes in the education system take root in Liberia. Again, the ‘neoliberal’ discourse is evident – reflected in the view that literacy is necessary for employment opportunities rather than democracy or patriotism.

The ‘disaster capitalism’ discourse pervades the whole text – constructing the education system in Liberia as a crisis which requires urgent reforms. Teachers are described as a problem (‘low quality teachers’, ‘low teacher attendance’) and so forth. “At the root of these problems are poor quality teachers, low teacher attendance, too few school hours spent in the classroom, poor incentives for teachers to perform (no assessment of teacher performance, and student learning outcomes are not measured until the 9th grade).”(P.2) This ‘disaster capitalism’ discourse fuses with ‘new public management’ discourse (‘no assessment of teacher performance, and student learning outcomes are not measured’) in the above extract which heightens the demand for change of the system of education in Liberia. This ‘disaster capitalism’ discourse is further sustained in the conclusion of the document. There is only one option of reversing poverty and the poor education system in Liberia – effecting the educational reforms. “Liberia’s poverty can never be addressed without adequate education for children and young people. To supply this, we need to turn around learning outcomes. Our schools are failing Liberian children and making them unable to perform in WAEC exams, university, or to gain employment. Without completing these reforms, children will continue to receive inadequate teaching and learning outcomes - another generation will be failed” (p. 6). There is no alternative apart from adopting a PPP with LFPSs. The situation in the above extract is constructed in a way that shows Liberian people are very poor, and without adequate education the status quo will remain the same. The school system is failing the children, limiting their chances of joining university and gaining employment. ’Disaster capitalism’ discourse is so prevalent that in the conclusion of the document - there is a warning: an entire generation of being failed if reforms do not take place. In this case we see ‘disaster capitalism’ fusing with the broader ‘neoliberal’ discourse that views education in terms of employment as shown in the text. The push for education reforms in the above extract also reveals ‘corporate opportunism’ discourse (‘we need to turn around learning outcomes’). There is need to seize the chance of carrying out educational reforms under a PPP with LFPSs, an enterprise that creates profits, as opposed to funding and strengthening the existing national education structure (government/ministry of education) through remedying the weaknesses. In terms of intertextuality , the text draws on other texts . The sub-title of the text: ‘transforming educational outcomes’ is an adaptation of the 2000 World Bank report (‘From schooling access to learning outcomes: Unfinished agenda’) in which learning outcomes are emphasised. In terms of manifest intertextuality, the text draws on other report reviews from big companies. “We intend to start a pilot with Bridge International, who McKinsey have assessed as the provider on the continent with the lowest costs and the best learning outcomes.”(p.1) McKinsey is an iconic American company that does consultancy work with big international companies and super rich national governments. Tentatively, we can conclude that the high degree of interdiscursivity used in this text is a signal for social change (Fairclough, 2003). There is a strong push for the GOL to change from provider of public education services to one that contracts out those services through PPPs with LFPSs.

6.2. Memorandum of understanding between Government of Liberia and Bridge This text is a legally binding agreement between the Government of Liberia and Bridge International Academies. It is a 21-page document that builds on the ideas introduced in the Concept Note described in (6.1). This text describes the scope of services Bridge will provide. It includes items such as core terms of engagement, data reports, measuring project results, costs and key financial and non-financial contribution of Government of Liberia. The core terms of engagement are broad; they include teacher recruitment, pupil enrolment, curriculum and so forth.

6.2.1. Textual analysis Like the concept note in (6.1), the section focuses on four textual features for analysis. These features are modality, transivity, nominalization and space-times. 6.2.1.1. Modality The text uses present simple tense and modal verbs in the statements. Generally the whole text is written in statements of assertions and very few in denials. In the following illustration, the government of Liberia (GOL) asserts its commitment to provide free public education, but at the same time states that PPP is not similar to privatization as there is not payment of fees. “The Government is committed to free basic education. Every child has the right to go to school, and that means that basic schools must be free. Public private partnerships differ from privatization, as the public schools will remain under Government control and will not charge fees to parents for tuition or school services.” p.2 The modality above is deontic; statements are highly modalised in present simple tense (“is committed”) and use of modal verbs (“will”, “must”). This modality portrays the identity the GOL would like to display – a committed state in support of public education. The text at some point uses statements with verbal processes to make commitments to obligation, but at the same time uses low modality in regard to the cost. “The Government of Liberia seeks to contract with Bridge International as they have a proven model of school management … at a price point that may be affordable…..”p.2 The first part of the statement (seeks to contract) creates high modality about the GOL’s will to improve education. It also creates an identity about Bridge as a good company that provides good services. The low modality about the cost (may be affordable) may signify the uncertainties associated with private providers of services like education. Most of the text is rife with deontic modality, GOL and Bridge making strong commitments to obligation in the partnership. “Qualified teachers with the skills to improve Learning outcomes: the Pilot will assess existing civil service teachers, certified but unemployed teacher candidates, and other candidates that meet requirements….The pilot will give preference to the teachers in the school they are taking over and will test them first. The government will approve the test….”p.3

Most of these commitments are material processes – relating to action or doing; (‘will assess’, ‘will approve’) and verbal processes (will give). The modality is high; this helps to create the identity of Bridge as a highly motivated company and GOL as a cooperative partner. In other parts of the text, the timeless present creates high modality. This modality is key in projecting the image of Bridge in relation to its role in the partnership. As an operator, Bridge is bound to: “Fully train principals to be effective school leaders, and managers and supervisors of teachers in the school, as well as concern for the welfare of the pupils and engagement with the community.” “Supply each teacher with an e-reader tablet …to which all lessons and teacher resource library will be published” p.4 The modality above is deontic, committing Bridge to carry out its obligation in the partnership. These commitments are realized as material processes (‘supply each teacher’, ‘train principals’). The first statement illuminates Bridge’s self-identity in the business of education provision as a unique firm. The welfare of pupils is a moral issue, so deontic modality may portray Bridge as a cooperative and engaging company. The second statement builds Bridge’s identity as a technologically advanced education provider down to the classroom. In certain cases, strong commitment to obligation is visible; however hypothetical modality is used to cast uncertainty on such commitments. The text below shows the commitment for GOL and Bridge in selecting school location for the partnership. “Operator and GOL will agree on the selection and location of the 50 pilot schools.” p.9 The high modality above is deontic; however if a school has two classrooms for each level, that counts as two schools. The arrangement in the partnership is that each school should have one class with a maximum of 50 pupils. If the school has a class with 100 pupils, that creates two streams of one class. In such cases, any one additional stream of 50 pupils for each grade level would automatically make the providers count that as two schools.

“The assumption is that each of the 50 schools is a single stream, meaning one classroom each for each grade-level. If a school has 2 classrooms for each grade-level, this would count as 2 schools against the total Pilot count of 50 schools”.p.9 This reluctance to make commitment to obligation is achieved through hypothetical modality (would count). This highlights the manipulative nature of private providers of education. This may be done to maximize profits on the part of Bridge since they will not double staff like administrators. They will use the same internet network, security but bill the government double. Modality is equally high in terms of selection of schools as seen in the extract below. “In order to increase the likelihood of the pilot project success in this pilot phase, the majority of schools selected shall be in a single large urban area (such as Monrovia) with access to data-enabled cell service. In addition, the schools should be clustered within urban areas to ensure cost-effective oversight and physical distribution.” p.9–10. High modality (‘shall be’, ‘should be’) indicate some form of power (Fairclough, 2003). The idea of partnership schools being around urban centres problematizes the principle of equitable and

71 inclusive education that Liberia wants to achieve especially given the fact that majority of pupils who are not accessing basic education are in rural areas (see fig. 1.4). Lastly, the text highlights the role of GOL in the partnership as a mobiliser and provider of funds to run the project. The modality is high, committing the GOL to its obligation. In the partnership, Bridge and government are aware that more money for this project will not only be provided by ministry of education or GOL but also from donations from philanthropic partners and agencies. Bridge is keen to have this in the agreement since these are huge amounts of money. “The GOL, through the Ministry and the Office of the President will drive the requests for funds from GOL's philanthropic partners.”p.18 “It is anticipated…. securing commitments of the $3.1M must occur by March 1, 2016” p.18 The commitments are expressed as material processes (will drive, must occur), creating high modality. This creates the identity of modern business in public education provision. This portrays the character of new capitalism in which deadlines (time and space) play a key role.

6.2.1.2. Nominalisation In this text, nominalization is rarely used. In the section of “core terms of engagement” the text makes use of the following nominalisation. “Every principal teacher will be subjected to a rigorous selection, testing and interview process, which will result in some teachers being offered a role and others not being offered.” p.8 In nominalisations, tense, modality and agency are lost (Fairclough, 2003). Who does the selection, testing and offering teachers jobs are omitted. This use of nominalisation has an effect: the selection and eventual offering of the jobs to people has no agency. It is like a natural process or occurrence that happens to people as the social agents that do the selection are omitted. One may infer that the exclusion of agents is to focus on building the image of the recruitment process as a quality service (Fairclough, 2003). The process is explicitly elaborate (‘rigorous’, ‘testing’, ‘interview’, ‘selection’). In this case, we notice that the processes are given prominence, not the people doing the recruitment. The limited use of nominalisation in this text can be understood from one perspective. This text is about specific commitments on both parties: the Government of Liberia and Bridge. Such commitments are specific and are communicated in clear language where speculation is limited. The element of legal framing of discourse in this text therefore limits use of nominalisation as actors and objects must be specific. 6.2.1.3. Transivity The text generally is spread with activated subjects and few instances of passive voice. This section deals with activated subjects first. The GOL faces high illiteracy rates and it aims to reduce them. “By 2021, the Government of Liberia expects to have achieved over 90% literacy rates, enroll 90% of children in school on time, and have near gender parity in learning outcomes.”p.2

There seems to be no ideological implications in the text through the use of activated subjects. The government’s role in ensuring education provision is given prominence in the above statement. In a similar incident, activated subject is noticeable in the following example. “..the Pilot will put specific attention on girls' learning.”p.3 The government focuses on its role in improving learning outcomes of girls in the above statement. The purpose of using activated subjects seems to be for matters of clarity. However there is no description how girls’ education will be improved. The text also has statements in the passive voice. “All principal teachers in the pilot project will be paid according to the same GOL salary scale as was paid to them before the pilot project.”p.8 The statement is written in the agentless passive voice. This creates issues of doubt since the partnership schools are set to work on Saturdays, which is an additional period of time in work. Given the nature of private companies to maximize profits, the agentless passive voice may be deliberate to take advantage of available labour. The last example in the text is an entire paragraph about children enrolment in the new partnership schools. The statements consistently leave out agency. “All pupils (including those already studying at selected locations) will be required to take placement examinations. These placement examinations will be needed in order to ensure that pupils can be placed in the right class and not for selection for pilot schools. Pupils will be supported in the greatest way in their learning but not denied access to pilot schools. As such, based on pupil placement tests along with their age, pupils will be placed into classes by the pilot school.”p.11 It is only in the last statement where the agent is mentioned, but with the duty to focus on placement test score, not giving placement examinations. Such omission has consequences such as if a child does not pass the placement test, the action may be regarded as calamity with no one to blame but the child (Fairclough, 2003). Few instances of transivity in this text are discussed. CDA focuses on passivation in text to detect any concealment of ideas that implicate ideological influences. Given the legal element in this document, there are few cases of passivation in the text since clarity in such agreements is very important.

6.2.1.4. Space-times In the extract produced under this section, textual elements that are germane to the construction of time are in bold text. Those elements relevant to the construction of space are underlined. In this document, there are three major space-times: space-time of partnership management, space-time of Liberian public education and space-time of equitable and inclusive education. The space-time of partnership management is constructed in varied ways. Tense and aspect of the verb are key in this construction. This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) sets the understanding between Ministry of Education, Government of Liberia and Bridge International Academies as well as specific

responsibilities and of each party to ensure that all children are able to become literate and numerate regardless of age, and that future generations of Liberia are set on a new path through an innovative public private partnership that will see private providers with proven results in literacy and numeracy, or providers with experience in comparable situations to what Liberia faces today, contracted to serve as the pilot cohort of publicly financed, privately managed public schools. These schools will be judged in comparison with traditionally managed public schools. The Pilot Schools are public schools, but are managed with autonomy within the existing laws to deliver on improved learning gains to benefit each child, and the country. p.1 The above extract shows a shift in tenses from the timeless present (‘sets’, ‘are’), to the future tense (‘will see’), to timeless present (‘faces’), to future tense again (‘will be judged’), and then back to the timeless present (‘are managed’). The timeless present in this extract brings out the undelimited timespan- in most cases with spatial specifications (‘government of Liberia’, ‘Bridge international Academies’, ‘Liberia’, ‘schools’, ‘traditionally managed public schools’, ‘pilot schools’) seems to suggest the element of perpetuity of the partnership management. The construction of space-time of partnership management is realised as a relationship between spatial and temporal aspects. These space-times are identified: ‘local’ space-time of partnership management (‘schools’, ‘pilot schools’, ‘traditionally managed public schools’), ‘national’ space- time of partnership management (‘Government of Liberia’, ‘Liberia’), and ‘global’ space-time of partnership management (‘Bridge International Academies’). Therefore the ‘local’, ‘national’, and ‘global’ space-time of partnership management is a unit, actualized in aspects of time and space. The relationship between the three space-times of partnership management also affects other social actors such as the children (‘each child’) and future generations of Liberia. As noticed in (6.1.1.4), the ‘global’ space-time of partnership management – unlike the ‘local’ and ‘national’, is located ‘nowhere and everywhere’ (‘Bridge International Academies’). Therefore any action by Bridge International Academies may affect children of future generations of Liberia. This suggests that aspects of space and time also affect other social relations and identities. This interconnection of space-times is pervasive in communities facing social change in late modernity. The space-time of partnership management is again constructed in other parts of the document using different tenses. The shift in tense in the extract below helps to paint a picture of social change. The Government of Liberia seeks to contract with Bridge International as they have a proven model of school management, teacher support, and use of instructional materials that together deliver significantly improved literacy and numeracy gains as compared to the existing public system, at a price point that may be affordable based on current and forecasted budgets. The government will also engage with other providers. By 2021, the Government of Liberia expects to have achieved over 90% literacy rates, enroll 90% of children in school on time, and have near gender parity in learning outcomes. Through the Pilot Project, Liberia will be quickly "Getting to Best" across the continent of Africa, and setting an example globally that will be emulated. p.2 Tense shifts from the timeless present (‘seeks’, ‘have’, ‘deliver’, ‘may be’), to the future (‘will also engage’) back to timeless present (‘expects’, ‘enroll’, ‘have’) to the future tense (‘will be’), to progressive (‘setting’), then to the future (will be emulated). Adverbs of time (‘By 2021’) and manner (quickly) help to construct aspects of time. The timeless present is used here again to construct the un-delimited timespan of partnership management as located ‘everywhere and

nowhere’. This representation is very important in understanding neoliberalism since this suggests partnership management in this case exists beyond any specific site – therefore it is global (Fairclough, 2003). In the above extract, the ‘national’ space-time of partnership management is constructed with the aid of spatial specifications (‘The Government of Liberia’, Liberia’). The ‘regional’ space-time of partnership management (‘continent of Africa’) is also constructed. Lastly the ‘global; space-time of partnership management is constructed in the same manner (‘Bridge International Academies’). The fusion of the ‘national’, ‘regional’ and the ‘global’ space-times of partnership management is a construction that portrays a presence of a real process of annihilation of space-times through space- time compression (Harvey, 1990). The space-time of Liberian public education is yet another category identified in this document. Like other space-times, tense and aspects of the verb help in its construction as seen in the extract below. “It is the obligation of the Government of Liberia (GOL or Government) to ensure that every child can actualize his or her right to basic education by having access to publicly financed schools, without cost beyond the parent's contributions to the tax-base of the country. After more than a decade of civil war, post-conflict stress, and the Ebola health crisis in 2014-2015, despite significant support from Multi-lateral partners such as the GPE and bi-lateral partners such as USAID to drive significant program changes in teacher training and resource procurement, Liberia's children remain with a right to quality education that is unrealized.”p.2. What is vital to note in this space-time are the ‘global’ and ‘national’ aspects. The ‘national’ (‘GOL’ or ‘Government’) space-time of Liberian public education is ‘fused’ with the ‘global’ (‘multi-lateral partners’, ‘USAID’) space-time of Liberian public education so much so that the difference is blurred. It is the ‘global’ space-time framing the ‘national’ space-time in terms of teacher training and so forth. The ‘national’ space-time of Liberian public education is constructed as a relationship between the present (‘is’, ‘can actualise’,‘remain’, ‘is unrealised’) and the past (‘after more than a decade’, ‘post-war conflict’, ‘Ebola health crisis in 2014-2015’). This relationship is constructed with the aid of tense (present simple) and adverbs of time such as ‘decade’, ‘2014-2015’ and ‘post-conflict’. The relationship between the past and the present is constructed in a manner that highlights the negative past – henceforth affecting the present. However this relationship is textured in such a way that no viable solution – despite well-intended interventions in the past, can solve the present crisis apart from one alternative - adopting PPPs with LFPSs. The change in relations between the past and present are part of social change that affect organisations and individuals. The ‘national’ space-time of Liberian public education has been constructed over time by multilateral partners like GPE and bilaterals like USAID. But as part of social change, the same donors change stance to adopt a new relationship. There is also a way the ‘national’ space-time of Liberian public education is constructed in relation to the ‘global’ space-time of Liberian public education. Though the ‘national’ space-time of Liberian public education is specified spatially (‘Liberia’s), the ‘global’ space-time of Liberian public education is not (‘multi-lateral partners’, ‘bilateral partners such as USAID’). Though ‘USAID’ is mentioned, it is not specified spatially. USAID and other organisations and multilaterals exist beyond specific sites – everywhere and nowhere - therefore they are ‘global’.

In this case, the ‘global’ space-time of Liberian public education controlled, still controls and will control (such as in this partnership) the ‘national’ space-time of Liberian public education. Another interesting mix is that the idea that this space-time of Liberian public education is not only marked by verb and tense, adverbs of time but also by generic ‘Liberia’s children’. The children of Liberia belong to the ‘global’ space-time of Liberian public education. What global actors decide to do also affect the children of Liberia. This shows that spatio-temporalities are chained to social relations and social identities (Fairclough, 2003). This shows how social systems are positioned in relation to the national and practical places and locations in social life (Fairclough, 2003). Space-time of equitable and inclusive education is constructed as a relationship between boys’ and girls’ illiteracy in Liberia. “2/3 of girls 15-24 are illiterate, and 1/3 of boys” p.2 It is also constructed in general terms as children not specifying categories of vulnerable groups such as girls or the children with disabilities “Due to the significant overage population in primary school and the out of school population, an inclusive national school campaign to ensure literacy of all children by 2021 would effect [sic] almost 50% of the total population of Liberia” p.2 In the above extract, inclusiveness is not well defined save for the broad categorization of all children. This space-time is again constructed in general terms such as “improving girls’ learning outcomes and measuring enrolment” but there is no specific definition how this would be done by the contracted partners. The text also provides other examples of evasive sentiments. “Improving Girls learning outcomes: the Pilot will put specific attention on girls' learning, and measure enrollment, attendance, and learning outcomes by gender, while ensuring a positive learning environment for girls, as well as boys.” p.3 “Ensuring increasing gender equality for girls throughout all Pilot schools, with specific outreach to girls and ensuring a girl-friendly environment” p.5 In the above extract, the specific roles of who would ensure and implement gender quality and what ‘outreach’ entails are left very silent yet other parts of the MoU concerning payments and school selection are articulated in minute details. The document is silent on other vulnerable groups apart from girls such as children with mental and physical impairments. The extract below is equally general, while at the same it infers that some pupils may be disadvantaged during the enrolment exercise.. “All pupils (including those already studying at selected locations) will be required to take placement examinations. These placement examinations will be needed in order to ensure that pupils can be placed in the right class and not for selection for pilot schools. Pupils will be supported in the greatest way in their learning but not denied access to pilot schools.” p.11 The space-time of equitable and inclusive education is thus constructed in general terms without clear cut duties on the part of the implementers. This creates doubts about PPPs with LFPSs in providing equitable and inclusive education. In summary, three space-times have been analysed: space-time of partnership management, space-time of Liberian public education and space-time of equitable and inclusive education. The

76 first two have national and global interconnection that affects social relations and identities in real life situations. The space-time of equitable and inclusive education is ‘local’; the omission of disadvantaged groups in the construction of this space-time signals equity and inclusive questions posed to PPPs with LFPSs in Black Africa. Harvey’s theory of space and time operationalized in this section reveals much about the pervasiveness of neoliberal forces affecting Black Africa. The space- time in this MoU reveals power connections about the movers of PPPs with LFPSs. For example multilaterals such as USAID are implicated in the influence of education and its inevitable reforms in Black Africa. Therefore, space-times is a good feature to identify power relationships between IOs and governments and also helps to connect the relationship between private providers of education and national governments. In this section of textual analysis, like in 6.1, four features have been analysed in great detail. First, modality, nominalisation and transivity, all connected to Fairclough’s CDA, have been analysed as text as text. Space-times, an operationalization of Harvey’s theory of space and time, has also been analysed under text following Fairclough’s guidelines (Fairclough, 2003).

6.2.2. Discursive practice This Memorandum of Understanding, just like the Concept Note contains a high degree of interdiscursivity. The text heavily draws on neoliberal discourses. The opening paragraph displays a mix of ‘government business’ discourse merged with neoliberal discourse – narrowing to ‘corporate advertising’ discourse (‘providers with proven results’) that fuses with narrative genre (‘providers with experience’). The section ends with a typical ‘government business’ discourse (‘benefit every child and country’). “The Pilot Schools are public schools, but are managed with autonomy within the existing laws to deliver on improved learning gains to benefit each child, and the country” (p.1) This text is also an interdiscursive mix of ‘legal’ discourse (‘sets the understanding’) and ‘government business’ discourse. “This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) sets the understanding between Ministry of Education, Government of Liberia and Bridge International Academies.” (p.1) Other sections of the text manifest ‘neoliberal market’ discourse articulated together with ‘government business’ discourse (‘Government of Liberia seeks to contract’); the neoliberal discourse (“school management”) narrows down to ‘promotional’ discourse (“proven model”). “The Government of Liberia seeks to contract with Bridge International as they have a proven model of school management, teacher support, and use of instructional materials that together deliver significantly improved literacy and numeracy gains as compared to the existing public system”. (p.2) The text also draws on other neoliberal discourse specifically ‘new public management’ discourse (“data driven decision making”) to focus on the role of teachers in the PPP. “All teachers will be assessed with the same instruments, approved by government, and pupil growth will be measured over the course of the Pilot so that the Ministry can validate the quality of education provided by teachers with various histories of preparation in order to use

data-driven decision-making to drive Government definitions of what is required to be a qualified teacher.” (p.3) This interdiscursive mix of neoliberal and ‘government business’ discourse pervades the entire text which highlights the merging of public and private cooperation in Liberia. The text draws on ‘new public management’ discourse and ‘modernist’ discourse to create a complex interdiscursive mix. One of the duties of personnel in the PPP is to: “Performance manage and supervise staff at every pilot academy to deliver on learning Outcomes. This also includes ensuring accountability for attendance delivery using Bridge's technology platform for monitoring attendance and instructional delivery.” (p.4) The element of supervision and accountability are essential in neoliberalism, most of which relies on modern technological tools of surveillance. As teachers monitor the attendance of pupils, the ‘school managers’ (principals) also monitor the teachers’ attendance, lesson content and so forth. These managers are also managed at the regional headquarters. The document displays the ‘neoliberal’ discourse in some other sections. This is manifested in the writing that all teachers and principal teachers will be subjected to competing for all positions. It is stated clearly that some teachers and principal teachers have no guarantee that they would all be recruited by Bridge. “Every principal teacher will be subjected to a rigorous selection, testing and interview process, which will result in some teachers being offered a role and others not being offered. For principals and teachers from the existing school who are not offered a role in the pilot project at that school, GOL will place or staff them in an alternative location that is not part of the pilot project.” (p. 8) This ‘neoliberal’ discourse encompasses ‘social Darwinism’ discourse (rewarding the most competitive). In the extract above, there is no interdiscursive mix of two discourses from different discourse orders. Rather there is a blend of neoliberal discourses that are more or less similar perceived from lexicons like ‘selection’, ‘rigorous’, ‘testing’, ‘interviews’. These lexicons denote competition that is common in neoliberal logic. The ‘neoliberal discourse’ perceived from the idea of competition is also noticeable with children’ education in Liberia as seen in the extract below. “All pupils (including those already studying at selected locations) will be required to take placement examinations. These placement examinations will be needed in order to ensure that pupils can be placed in the right class and not for selection for pilot schools. Pupils will be supported in the greatest way in their learning but not denied access to pilot schools. As such, based on pupil placement tests along with their age, pupils will be placed into classes by the pilot school. Such class placements may be different than their previous class placements before the pilot project began.”(p.11). In the above extract, pupil placement examinations denote competition which is common with neoliberals in education. There is no interdiscursivity noticed in the extract. This implies there is a reproduction or maintenance of the status quo. In this signed Memorandum of Understanding, it is established that competition is key, and test scores determines the class a pupil will attend.

‘Corporate opportunism’ discourse is also noticed in the following extract where Bridge – despite the profitable contract they have signed, still needs to take advantage of more donor interventions available to public schools in Liberia. “Because all pilot schools are Ministry public schools, all pilot schools will be eligible (and hopefully given preference) for participation in programs that may be run by the Ministry or its donor partners. Examples of such programs might include lunch programs (World Food Program), distribution of school materials like backpacks, school materials, health programs, school rehabilitation grants (GPE) and more. Operator will work closely with the Technical Committee in the Ministry to ensure close coordination and collaboration on all potential programs.”(p.11). The phrase “because all pilot schools are Ministry public schools, all pilot schools will be eligible (and hopefully given preference) for participation” portrays and reveals ‘corporate opportunism’ in which for-profit corporations like Bridge take every opportunity to feed from any resources available in the public sphere. In other parts of the document, a lucid ‘corporate opportunism’ discourse is noticeable. Liberia may, in some cases, fail to provide skilled people/citizens to implement the educational reforms under the partnership programme project (Partnership Schools for Liberia). That would require non- Liberians but the national government of Liberia should facilitate that undertaking. “In cases where a non-Liberian citizen is required for a role based in Liberia (after reasonable efforts have been undertaken to identify a resident Liberian candidate), MOE to support work permit applications that are demonstrated as needed for implementation of the PSL project.” (p.20) This ‘corporate opportunism’ discourse (‘In cases where a non-Liberian citizen is required for a role’) is articulated together with ‘government business’(‘MOE to support work permit applications’) discourse, creating an interdiscursive mix. The discourse of ‘disaster capitalism’ pervades this document. Liberia as a country is constructed in a discourse that shows it is in great crisis; therefore intervention is required especially to the education of children as seen in the extract below. “After more than a decade of civil war, post-conflict stress, and the Ebola health crisis in 2014- 2015, despite significant support from multi-lateral partners such as the GPE and bi-lateral partners such as USAID to drive significant program changes in teacher training and resource procurement, Liberia's children remain with a right to quality education that is unrealized.” (p.1) Liberia has had crises in the economy, health (Ebola health crisis) and governance (civil wars) as noticed above. ‘Disaster capitalism’ discourse also is prevalent in the extract reflected in the number of out-of- school children, the low completion rates and low literacy rates. The future of Liberia in the above extract is cast in doom and gloom. “It is a significant success of the Government that now 1.5 million children are now enrolled in school. Yet, only 20% of children who enroll in Primary 1 complete Senior Secondary, or Grade 12. Even of those Primary 1, over 50% are joining school between 3 to 6 years late. 2/3 of girls 15-24 are illiterate, and 1/3 of boys. Without a radical change in the existing strategy of

the Government of Liberia, it is unlikely that a child's right to quality education will be actualized in this generation even in the capital of Monrovia, let alone across the country.” (p.1) The impression constructed in the above extract is that of a need for urgent change in the status quo. This change can be achieved through the adoption of the PPP with LFPSS. In this document Bridge as an international LFPS is selected to implement ‘reforms’ in the education of primary education. Interdiscursive mix – featuring ‘disaster capitalism’ discourse (‘impoverished communities’) and ‘traditional government’ discourse (‘GOL’, schools in Liberia’) is also prevalent in the text. “Operator has already spent the last seven years developing and operating high quality nursery and primary schools in impoverished communities in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria. When Operator comes to partner with GOL to operate pilot schools in Liberia, it will be able to bring all of these prior investments developed to work in impoverished communities but directly perfected to work in Kenya will be brought to bear on working in communities in Liberia. This enables Operator to provide very high Value for Money under this MOU, since it does not have to redevelop the core approaches, pedagogy and technology for the purposes of the pilot project.” (p.14) The prevalence of interdiscursivity is a call for changes in the status quo; the education system of Liberia may thus be open to social changes. In terms of intertextuality, the text draws on other texts. The text draws on the government’s ‘National Education Plan’ to articulate some issues on assessment and other aspects. “By 2021, the Government of Liberia expects to have achieved over 90% literacy rates, ……As such, the Pilot Project fulfills 7 of the 9 core principles of the Government's 2015 ‘Getting to Best’ National Education Sector Plan.” (p.2) The text also draws on a narrative genre, just like the Concept Note text in (6.1). “Operator has already spent the last seven years developing and operating high quality nursery and primary schools in impoverished communities in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria.” (p.17). This narrative genre helps to illuminate the strong experience yet to be replicated in Liberia. Summary This high degree of interdiscursivity may signal a call for urgent social changes (Fairclough, 2003). Be as it may, the text also has many sections in which ‘neoliberal’ discourses are articulated as ‘stand-alone’, without any interdiscursivity with other discourses. This may suggest the slow complete takeover of education provision in certain divisions of the public sector by private providers. In short the stable use of ‘neoliberal’ discourses used in concert may show a stabilised state of affairs. Neoliberal practices are accommodated and could slowly be occupying some sections of the public sphere.

6.3. Why we are partnering to improve free public education in Liberia – Press release This is the last document for analysis. It is a press release by Bridge International Academies posted on its official website on 5th April 2016. It was published two months before the official

80 launch of the Partnership Schools for Liberia (PSL) of which Bridge was one of the partners. By this date, Bridge had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Liberian Ministry of Education. The agreement was to the effect that Bridge would provide compulsory basic education for all for pre-and primary schools in Liberia under a public-private partnership.

6.3.1. Textual analysis Like the other two documents in (6.1) and (6.2), this textual analysis will focus on four features. These textual features are modality, transivity, nominalisation and space-times. 6.3.1.1. Modality The text uses epistemic modality while referring to the poor state of education in Africa, Asia and Liberia in particular. The image created by this modality implicitly suggests the education system in Africa is ruined. “69 million primary aged children remain out of school, and learning outcomes for many children in […] Asia and Africa are dismal. In Liberia […] 42% of children are out of school, and only 20% of children enrolled in primary school complete secondary school. A Liberian girl today has a higher chance of being married before the age of 18 than being able to read !”p.1 The text above uses present tenses to create high categorical modality. Immediately below the above text, modality changes from epistemic to deontic. The timeless present (present simple tense) is used to effect this modality. Without referring to whom should take the obligation of improving the education system in Liberia, the text creates an identity of a better education system that would benefit all the people of Liberia – teachers, parents, pupils and the entire generation. “The people of Liberia deserve better. Parents deserve to have access to educational opportunities for their children, teachers deserve the support and resources to enable them to help children learn, and a generation of Liberian children deserve better than stumbling through a failed system.”p.1 In the following three short paragraphs after the above text, modality is heightened, using the modal verb, will. In this text, an identity of a partnership is created – one that is committed to turning round the dismal education system in Liberia. A series of promises by the partnership is outlined. “The partnership will work with education providers with proven models of school management, teacher support [...] The partnership will ensure that children in free, government owned and monitored schools have all the learning materials they need to feel engaged [...] It will guarantee to parents that their children will have a safe and welcoming place to spend the school day [… ] It will give good teachers the support and resources [...] to become great teachers, it will train [...] .teachers and equip them to change children’s lives. It will create employment for Liberia’s best and brightest, and it will provide the government with the tools [...] to collect data about attendance and learning outcomes [...] to improve all Liberian primary schools.”p.2 Modality is vital in texturing identities both personal and social (Fairclough, 2003). In the above text, there are social relations revealed. The partnership is painted in a picture that calls for change.

These changes affect social actors like pupils, parents and government personnel. In this context of outlining the partnership’s obligation to the people of Liberia, its self-identity is created. There is occurrence of ‘we statements’ in the text, the effect of which is for Bridge to identify itself with the people of Liberia. This kind of ‘we statements’ creates a bond with Liberians, but it is a bond with uneven social distribution (Fairclough, 2003). Bridge is a for-profit company, set to profit from the poor by providing educational services. These statements are articulated in the timeless present; others make use of the modal verb, will – all creating high modality. “We believe we can and must find solutions to ...pressing problems today. We believe we must try everything to give all children the opportunities they deserve,... We ask others to join us as partners to overcome inequality...”p.2 In the above extract, there are two types of processes; Bridge’s strong commitment to obligation are made as mental processes (we believe we can, we believe we must) and verbal process (we ask). In terms of deontic modality, the text is highly modalised with modal verbs (we can and must find, we must try) and the timeless present simple tense (we ask). What can be concluded about modality in connection to the image created about Bridge is twofold: there is self-identity of working with others (‘we ask others to join us’) and a strong obligation to change the status quo (“It will train bright and dedicated teachers and equip them to change the children’s lives”). The effect of this image portrayal is self-identification. Bridge portrays itself as a formidable private education ‘provider with a difference’ – an exceptional provider unlike any other that is highly focused and performance driven. The impression given is that the company cooperates with others, such as teachers, parents, pupils and entire communities – a perfect team player.

6.3.1.2. Nominalisation This text uses few instances of nominalisation. In the following example, quality basic education is a nominalisation – that is a series of ‘events that involve things happening to people’ (Fairclough, 2003). “Lack of access to a quality basic education is a primary driver of inequality.”p.1 Who provides quality education or who does not provide it is omitted. We can conclude that it occurs or happens without any agency. This paper has noted before in (5.1.1.2.) that new capitalism makes use of nominalisation in policy genre to elide agency for selfish reasons. In the following example, education systems is another nominalisation used in the text. “And yet globally, our education systems are failing.”p.1 With the aid of an intransitive verb (failing), the education systems are portrayed as happenings that have no causal agency for their failure. In the above cases, limited quality education and failing education systems are pinned down as problems that can be solved through a PPP. In this case, the causes are omitted; new capitalism practitioners build an identity that portrays them as redeemers of poor education services in Black Africa.

6.3.1.3. Transivity

The text has many statements of the ‘Subject + verb + Object’ type. This subsection starts with one kind of statement of the ‘Subject + verb’ nature. “69 million primary aged children remain out of school.” P.1 Statements of this kind are common in the text as well as in the Concept Note document (6.1). In the above statement, those “69 million children remain out of school”; the texturing portrays it as an occurrence without agency, and consequently no one takes responsibility for their being out of school. New capitalism as an ideological thought makes use of such texturing in policy briefs and related literature. Below is another statement of the same structure. “A Liberian girl today has a higher chance of being married before the age of 18 than being able to read!” p.1 Like the statement before, this one relates an event as if it a ‘natural’ process or a happening with no one responsible for its occurrence. Questions can be asked: What stops children from attending school? Who marries young girls? Why don’t they attend school? The ideological possibilities of using the above structure in statements may be to conceal the causality of illiteracy and poverty. In most cases, new capitalism is implicated in rampant inequalities in the world today. On the other hand, this text has very many statements that are activated, serving the same purpose as analysed in 5.1. Below is one example. “Bridge will implement its tried and tested model in 50 public primary schools…”p.2 The most probable reason for using such statements is to achieve prominence on the part of agency. This helps the subject to project its good image created in the statement. This text does not use the passive voice. 6.3.1.4. Space-times In the extracts produced under this section, textual elements that are germane to the construction of time are in bold text. Those elements relevant to the construction of space are underlined. In this document, there are four space-times identified. The first one is the space-time of Liberian education system. Below is an extract from which the explanation the space-time of Liberian education system is based. “And yet globally, our education systems are failing. 69 million primary aged children remain out of school, and learning outcomes for many children in schools across Asia and Africa are dismal. In Liberia, where decades of civil war and the recent Ebola epidemic have destroyed the education system, 42% of children are out of school, and only 20% of children enrolled in primary school complete secondary school. A Liberian girl today has a higher chance of being married before the age of 18 than being able to read!” p.1 This space-time of Liberian education system is constructed as relationship between what has happened in the past (‘have destroyed’) and what happens today or is happening now (‘are failing’, ‘20% […] complete secondary school’, ‘being married’, ‘being able to read’). This space-time is constructed in a manner that shows the Liberian system is vulnerable to unfavourable forces. Events happen to the education system – it is a ‘victim’ upon which things happen. In this case, the timeless present is used to realize this construct (‘children remain out of school’, ‘complete secondary

school’). The space-time of Liberian education system is also constructed in a way that links it to other education systems elsewhere. Like Liberia, other education systems also have children that remain out of school (‘children remain out […..] across Asia and Africa’). Two space-times of Liberian education system are constructed, all actualized with the aid of spatial specifications. These are ‘national’ space-time of Liberian education system and ‘global’ space-time of Liberian education system. The former is constructed using these spatial specifications: ‘in Liberia’, ‘primary school’, ‘secondary school’, ‘A Liberian’. The ‘global’ space- time of Liberian education system is constructed by using adverbs of place (‘globally’) and other specifications (‘our education systems’, ‘schools across Asia and Africa’). There is a relationship between ‘national’ space-time of Liberian education system and the ‘global’ space-time of Liberian education system. It is however constructed differently from the normal texturing. In the extract, education systems are failing globally, but the examples of such failures are in Asia and Africa, but not in Europe or North America. In many cases of social change in late modernity, ‘global’ space-times are constructed in such a manner that they influence ‘local’ /‘national ‘or ‘regional’ space-times. In this context however, the ‘global’ space-time of Liberian education system does not influence the ‘national’ space-time of Liberian education system. Rather the latter is part of the former. It constitutes the ‘global’ space-time of Liberian education system. And the ‘global’ space-time of Liberian education system is constituted by the ‘national’ space-time of Liberian education system. In this section, the argument put forward is that what is indeed ‘global’ is rationally ‘regional’ – Asia and Africa do not constitute the ‘global’ but the ‘regional’. Both regions are susceptible to the same problems of epidemics and wars. Specifically, both space- times are one, and the same, notwithstanding the lexical labels like ‘global’. In terms of construction of identities, the ‘global’ North constitutes what is presumed ‘global’ and it is textured to that effect in text and talk. That is why in ‘reality’, the construction of ‘global’ and ‘national’ in the extract is the same, except in name. The next space-time in this document is the space-time of Bridge as will be explained based in the following extract. “Bridge International Academies is honored to serve the Liberian people as the first of many partners under Partnership Schools for Liberia. In a pilot program, Bridge will implement its tried and tested model in 50 public primary schools, accessing approximately 20,000 children for the 2016 – 2017 academic year. In its 8 years working in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria, Bridge has been a proactive and successful partner to parents and governments, delivering statistically significant learning gains for its pupils. In Kenya, Bridge’s pioneer pupils had a 40% higher chance of passing national primary exit exams in 2015.” p.2 The space-time of Bridge is constructed as a relationship between the past (what Bridge has done in ‘its 8 years working in Uganda and Kenya’, making pupils pass examinations in ‘2015’) and the present (‘is honored to serve Liberian people’), and the future (Bridge ‘will implement its tried and tested model [….] 2016-2017 academic year’). This relationship is a representation of social change, where Bridge moves across countries, providing private education – supplementing rather than partnering with national governments, and in Liberia where it enters into a public-private partnership. These social changes affect social identities at different levels. The space-time of Bridge can be categorized into three aspects – focusing on spatial and non- spatial specifications: the ‘national’, ‘regional’ and ‘global’. The ‘national’ space-time of Bridge is

84 constructed with the aid of spatial vocabulary (‘partnership for Liberia’). The ‘regional’ space-time of Bridge is constructed and actualized with spatial specifications – in this case specific proper and common nouns ( ‘Kenya’, ‘Uganda’, ‘Nigeria’, ‘national primary exit exams’, ‘governments’). The ‘global’ space-time of Bridge is constructed in a different way – there are no spatial specifications (‘Bridge International Academies’). In this section the word ‘international’ does not qualify the label ‘global’. Rather the fact that Bridge has provided private education in different countries makes it ‘global’ since these ‘governments’ may be in other parts of the globe. Unlike in the space-time of Liberian education system where ‘national’ and ‘global’ space- times do not influence each other, the ‘national’, ‘regional’ and ‘global’ space-times of Bride are constructed in a way that each influences the other. First the ‘regional, space-time of Bridge influences the ‘national’ space-time of Bridge. The relationship between these two is that the latter is framed by the former. For example, the ‘good performance’ of Bridge in the region (‘tried and tested model with years of experience in Kenya and Uganda’) is set to be replicated in Liberia. In this way, the ‘regional’ shapes the ‘national’ circumstances. In the same vein, the ‘global; space-time is constructed in such a way that it frames both the ‘regional’ space-times (‘Kenya’, ‘Uganda’, ‘Nigeria’, ) and the ‘national’ space-time (‘partnership schools for Liberia’). Bridge is constructed as a ‘global’ space-time since it is located ‘everywhere’ and ‘nowhere’, serving ‘parents and governments’ – some of which are mentioned (such as ‘Kenya’), and others are not. It implies these other governments may be in other parts of the globe. The non-spatial specifications of the ‘global’ space-time of Bridge may not be an innocent omission but rather a texturing meant to give it a universality that shapes and frames other space-times, that is ‘national’ and ‘regional’ space-times. The ‘global’ space-time of Bridge carries with it the power of modality – it is deontic. The phrase ‘Bridge will implement its tried and tested model’ shows Liberia must or should adopt the model – or it will continue having children out of school and experience other similar problems. There is yet the third space-time. It is the space-time of education for poverty reduction which is constructed as relationship between the level of education (‘complete primary’) and projected future income (‘income goes up’) as noticed in the extract below. This relation relationship is constructed in the way that shows increased income is good for individuals as well as the countries they come from as the gross domestic product increases as well. ” UNESCO’s Education For All Global Monitoring Report estimates that for every year a child completes primary school, his or her income goes up by 10%, and raises the average annual gross domestic product by 0.37%. When children finish school with basic reading skills, it substantially improves their economic opportunities thereafter. UNESCO reports that 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty if all children in low‐income countries left school with basic reading skills” p.1 This space time is also constructed in a manner that it is only through a PPP with LFPSs that their education and corresponding income would be guaranteed. “The only aim of the partnership is to provide Liberian children with the quality education they deserve. An education that [….]enables them to gain employment, start Liberian businesses and to be the successful leaders that the Liberian people need.” P.2 Therefore the space-time of education for poverty reduction is constructed in a fashion that shows quality education provided by Bridge will raise Liberian people out of poverty.

The space-time of equitable and inclusive education is the last in this document and it is constructed at one point using present tense (‘being married’,’ being able to read’) but at the same time contrasting the unfortunate states with missed opportunities as seen in the extract below. “A Liberian girl today has a higher chance of being married before the age of 18 than being able to read!” p.1 This method is also used when this space-time is constructed as a relationship between the undesirable past (‘felt lonely’) with the pleasant present (‘ I am [….] clever) as seen below. “Before I came to Bridge I felt lonely and discouraged. I thought that if I could just get through secondary school it would be enough. Being at Bridge taught me to believe I could be more. My teachers showed me that I am a clever, strong, African girl who can go on to change the world” p.3 This space time of equitable and inclusive education is generally constructed in terms of ‘the murky circumstances of a typical African girl’ – (‘being married before the age of 18’, ‘felt lonely and discouraged’), juxtaposed with ‘what we do to change the typical African girl and she blossoms in strength and wisdom’ (‘a clever strong African girl’). Apart from the case of the girl child, other vulnerable groups are not mentioned such as child mothers, victims of war, child prostitutes and orphans, all common in fragile states. In summary, there are four space-times identified in this document: space-time of Liberian education system and the space-time of Bridge. The first space-time has been constructed in a way that it needs reforms and other changes to produce good learning outcomes. The ‘global’ space-time of Liberian education system is not ‘truly’ ‘global’ but a reminder that it is only the global North (Europe and North America) that ‘truly’ constitutes the ‘global’. The space-time of Bridge is constructed in a manner that it influences the social relationships, top-down, that is ‘global’ to ‘national’. The space-times of education for poverty reduction and equitable and inclusive education are all ‘local’ or ‘national’. This feature (space-times), just like in 6.1.1.4. and 6.2.1.4. implicates social identities and social relationships. For example, the space-time of equitable and inclusive education binds the girls who are victims of missing education opportunities. The feature again maps the power relationships between private providers of education in the region (Bridge) and national governments. This is vital given the modality evident in the space-time of Bridge (‘Bridge will implement its tried and tested model’). This relationship reveals power over the other, that is ‘regional’ over ‘national’ (=Bridge over Liberia). This relationship casts doubts about the capacity of national governments exercising oversight over LFPSs. In this section of textual analysis, like in 6.2, four features have been analysed in great detail. First, modality, nominalisation and transivity, all connected to Fairclough’s CDA have been analysed as text as text. Space-times, an operationalization of Harvey’s theory of space and time, has also been analysed under text following Fairclough’s guidelines (Fairclough, 2003).

6.3.2. Discursive practice In this text, the neoliberal market discourse is prevalent. Education provision to children is not considered for anything else like nation-building, and so forth but for employment. This is a neoliberal market strategy; humans are educated to become items of production. It is even more

86 difficult to pin down the kind of education that engages the heart and mind suggested in the extract below. “The only aim of the partnership is to provide Liberian children with the quality education they deserve. An education that engages their hearts and minds, that enables them to gain employment, start Liberian businesses.” p.2 &3 The text has features of ‘corporate advertising’ discourse (“proven models…teacher support”). This is in reference to the providers who are set to provide education services in the PPP. “The partnership will work with education providers with proven models of school management, teacher support, and increasing learning outcomes to transform free public primary and nursery schools.” p.2 ‘Neoliberal market’ discourses narrow down to ‘new public management’ discourse in the text. For example, the element of competition among learners (“...best and brightest...”) narrows down to issues of accountability (“...collect data…attendance...”). (p.2). In the following extract, the partnership, among others things will: “[..]train bright and dedicated teachers and equip them to change children’s lives. It will create employment for Liberia’s best and brightest, and it will provide the government with the tools it needs to collect data about attendance and learning outcomes in order to be able to improve all Liberian primary schools” p.2 ‘Disaster capitalism’ discourse is detected in the opening parts of this document. The education system in the world is constructed as failing – creating a crisis of more than 69 million of primary aged pupils remaining out of school. Though this is indicated as a global problem, the text cites Africa and Asia as examples with a learning crisis as seen in this extract. “And yet globally, our education systems are failing. 69 million primary aged children remain out of school, and learning outcomes for many children in schools across Asia and Africa are dismal. In Liberia, where decades of civil war and the recent Ebola epidemic have destroyed the education system, 42% of children are out of school, and only 20% of children enrolled in primary school complete secondary school. A Liberian girl today has a higher chance of being married before the age of 18 than being able to read!” (p.1). In the above extract, Liberia is constructed as a country with endless crises – notably the civil wars, Ebola epidemic, low enrolment rates, low completion rates, high illiteracy rates and high teenage pregnancy rates. Accordingly these are enough reasons to change the current education system into one that adopts a PPP, relying on LFPSs to avert the above crises. The end of this press release accommodates ‘disaster capitalism’ discourse. The ideas constructed show generations of children in Liberia are failing, both at school and out of school. There is urgent call for solutions for the children of Liberia so that inequalities among them are reduced. Bridge portrays the disposition that it is at the forefront in the direction of this cause. “Bridge believes that it is unjust to let generations of children fail. We believe we can and must find solutions to the world’s most pressing problems today. We believe we must try everything to give all children the opportunities they deserve, and to address inequality for future generations. We ask others to join us as partners to overcome inequality and poverty together, one classroom at a time, for every boy and girl.” p. 3&4

The above extract, though constructed in a ‘disaster capitalism’ discourse, embraces the broader ‘neoliberal’ discourse (‘find solutions’, ‘pressing problems’, ‘partners’). However, there is no interdiscursive mix noticed in the extract as both genres belong to the same discourse order of neoliberalism. In other parts of the text, interdiscursive mix of ‘traditional government’ discourse and ‘neoliberal’ discourse is evident. “The Government of Liberia has taken bold steps to fix a drastic problem. While maintaining its role as the guarantor of free education for all children, the government has sought partners to vastly improve the quality of education through Partnership Schools for Liberia. The partnership will work with education providers with proven models of school management, teacher support, and increasing learning outcomes to transform free public primary and nursery schools.” p.2 Traditional ‘government’ discourse (‘The Government of Liberia’, ‘free education’, ‘free public primary and nursery schools’) fuses with ‘neoliberal’ discourse (‘Partnership Schools’, ‘education providers with proven models’, ‘learning outcomes’) to signal the social changes in the extract above. In terms of intertextuality, the text draws on UNESCO’s Global Monitoring report on issues to do with access to education. “Lack of access to a quality basic education is a primary driver of inequality. UNESCO’s Education For All Global Monitoring Report estimates that for every year a child completes of primary school, his or her income goes up by 10%, and raises the average annual gross domestic product by 0.37%.” p.2. Education provision is invariably related to employment and poverty reduction. Quality education is an avenue to development. The text also draws on narrative genre to highlight the experience of Bridge in the field of private education service provision. “In its 8 years working in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria, Bridge has been a proactive and successful partner to parents and governments, delivering statistically significant learning gains for its pupils.” p.3 This narrative genre helps to build the identity of Bridge, a regional company that is well versed with delivering education services to populations in Black Africa. In summary, his text has a very low level interdiscursivity. There is one case of interdiscursive mix and one case of intertextuality . According to Fairclough (2003), this trend signals reproduction of the established order. This is no surprise given the fact that the press release is content from Bridge, one of the companies trading private education services to the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ in Black Africa. In this chapter a full analysis has been conducted on three documents namely the concept note, the MoU between Bridge and the GOL and a press release by Bridge entitled Why we are partnering to improve free public education in Liberia. Fairclough’s three-dimensional model has been adopted in this thesis using three textual features namely modality, transivity and nominalization. In addition, space-times, a discursive feature adopted from Harvey’s theory of space and time has been used too under textual analysis. This micro-level analysis highlights ideological implications of PPPs with LFPSs visible in documents. Apart from complementing Fairclough’s grammatical features, space-

88 times under this chapter also helps to map text with discursive and non-discursive structures (‘national’, ‘regional’ and ‘global’) which Fairclough’s features alone would not at that level. This feature also implicates social relations as noticed in the analysis such as how Liberian children are affected by ‘national’, ‘regional’ and ‘global’ space-times. The discursive practice is the second level of analysis in the model; this thesis has made use of this analysis to map discourses with the discourse orders at various communicative events. These discourses have been mapped to measure if they signal social change or they suggest stability of the status quo. The table below is a summary of themes in the documents under textual and discursive practice. The next chapter first discusses the last stage in the model – placing the discourses into a wider social context- the social practice analysis.

Textual analysis Discursive practice Research questions (b) How are these challenges and solutions articulated in the documents? (c) What discourse is constructed about basic education in Liberia in the documents? (In reference to research question (a):To what educational challenges are PPPs with LFPSs promising policy solutions in Liberia?) Government of Poor education in Liberia cast as one in need of urgent reforms Generally constructed in neoliberal discourses: Liberia-Bridge Private education services by Bridge cast as those that produce good grades Referred to as a crisis in ‘disaster capitalism’ discourse partnership: Concept note Teachers portrayed as responsible for poor public basic education Described as in need of reforms in NPM discourse Reforms to emulate cast as the best in the region Described as set to improve with PPPs in ‘commodity’ advertising discourse Basic education cast an avenue for employability and further studies Described in neoliberal discourses as a failure Basic education presented as one controlled by global forces Memorandum of Retraining of teachers and principal teachers as key reforms Generally constructed in neoliberal discourses: understanding Adoption of technology (tablets) for teaching and accountability As set to improve with PPP in NPM discourse between Government of Liberia and Bridge Competitive enrolment through testing pupils as a way to go As competitive with PPP in neoliberal discourse Inclusive and equitable education cast urgent (girls’ learning ) Set as inadequate in ‘corporate opportunism’ discourse Partnership management of education as controlled by IOs Framed as appalling in ‘disaster capitalism’ discourse Why we are Children presented as victims of illiteracy, pregnancy – no agency named Generally constructed in neoliberal discourses: partnering to improve Partnership cast as a panacea: for training teachers, improving learning outcomes, Optimism for PPP in ‘corporate advertising’ discourse free public education creating employment, engaging parents, etc. in Liberia – Press Framed as appalling in ‘disaster capitalism’ discourse Liberian public education cast as a failure (poor grades, et cetera) release Set to be competitive with PPP in NPM discourse Globally education systems cast as failing, but examples: Africa and Asia Liberian education system cast as linked to regional and global capitalism Bridge private education services cast as global, occupying regional space. Basic education cited as a tool for poverty reduction and employment Equitable and inclusive education noted as vital, but only girls cited. Table 1.2. A summary of themes in the documents under textual and discursive practice

Chapter Seven: Discussion

7.1. Social practice analysis This section is a continuation of Fairclough’s three dimensional model – the social practice. It is placed in this chapter because it would make the previous chapter too long to follow. The social practice analysis in this section relates to discussions on text as text (textual analysis) and text as discursive practice discussed in chapter six. In this section, the thesis attempts to locate the “broader social practice of which these dimensions are part” (Jorgensen & Phillip, 2002, p.86). Since the analysis on the first two parts of the model was discussed in great detail in the previous chapter, this section will cite a few illustrations and deliberately focus on describing the social practice.

7.1.1. Government of Liberia-Bridge partnership: Concept note This text illustrates a high degree of overall interdiscursive blend of ‘neoliberal’ and traditional ‘government business’ discourses. There is a blurring of boundaries between the private and public sector as the two discourses get mixed together. The spread of ‘neoliberal’ discourses across other discourse orders – in this case ‘government business’ discourse order can be traced back in 2000. In that year the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) partly focused on health and education. In the same year, IMF and World Bank shifted from SAPs to poverty reduction strategy policies (PRSPs) that called for the promotion of partnerships with stakeholders in development agendas (Menashy, 2019). For example the traditional ‘government business’ discourse (‘publicly funded’) and the ‘neoliberal’ discourse (‘expertise and innovation’) articulated together explains this relationship as seen in the extract below. “[…]while the service to the user remains publicly funded, we believe that there is expertise and innovation that non-state providers can bring into how we run high standard, excellent schools. We have seen this first hand by visiting some of the successful models already operating in Africa.”

But these international organsisations wield power which is not obvious to the people involved. In the textual analysis under modality, this thesis analysed the power of ‘we’ statements (‘we believe’, ‘we have seen’) as avenues of exercising uneven power relations. This statement of making statement on behalf of others is a device much used in late modernity up to the extent that the people involved may not perceive it. Fairclough (1993) refers to this kind of unawareness opacity in his definition of CDA. Therefore, the interdiscursive mix of ‘neoliberal’ and ‘government business’ discourses are a result of the social intercourse between international agencies, private businesses and the national governments in education in the world and Black Africa in particular. Under PPPs, for-profit companies of great renown are promoted to deliver education services in developing countries. The donors therefore encourage national governments to partner with the private sector to promote basic education. This is especially true with policy paradigms seconded by World Bank in developing countries in which New Public Management (NPM) would allow governments to concentrate on planning, policy and quality assurances and the private sector would deliver services (Verger & Moschetti, 2017). This NPM approach would allow greater innovation on the part of the private sector, concentrating on output and outcomes as opposed to the process; there would be more financial resources to the public services like basic education (Verger & Moschetti, 2017). The ‘neoliberal’ and ‘government business’ discursive blend (‘basic education that is free’ and ‘expertise and innovation’) in this text can be understood as a reflection of the interaction between the government (Liberia) and the private sector as seen below. “We will not compromise on our commitment to basic education that is free...” “We believe that there is expertise and innovation that non-state providers can bring.” “We intend to start a pilot with Bridge International.” This interdiscursivity in the text can be linked to the forces from international organisations (IOs) and international corporations. World Bank, OECD, the EU, USAID, UNESCO, UNICEF and corporations like Microsoft and Intel have supported PPPs (Education International, 2009). For example, World Bank as the biggest funder of education globally actively promotes PPPs in education in both industrialised and developing countries (Education International, 2009). The Bank’s extensive support of PPPs is done through its private lending arm – International Finance Corporation (IFC). Elaborate toolkit as well as webpage on PPPs in education have been circulated by IFC. Therefore the involvement of the private sector with national governments to promote basic education has support of IOs (Education International, 2009). In this case, the interdiscursivity of ‘neoliberal’ and ‘government business’ discourses in this text may be tagged to that relationship between national governments and IOs. The EU produced a Green paper in April 2004 outlining initiatives aimed at offering the role of the private sector in public services, marketing PPPs and ascertaining that they should have access to public funds (Hall, 2004, as cited in Education International, 2009). Since the EU is a big funder of education in Black Africa, the interdiscursivity of ‘neoliberal’ and ‘government business’ (‘The GOL’ and ‘scalable public-private partnership’) may be traced to this narrative. USAID, in partnership with UNESCO, developed a 5-year programme to support PPPs in education in 2005 (Education International, 2009). Such full articulation is seen below.

“The GOL, partners and education economists will develop the standards, selection criteria and performance management framework for a larger scalable public-private partnership (PPP). In these and other similar circumstances, the current close ‘partnership’ between the private sector and public sector in education promotion is reflected in the merging of discourses – ‘neoliberal’ and government business’. It is therefore rational to assert that international organisations and corporations may have discursive influence reflected in the blending of discourses in this text. International organisations and corporations are not the only forces that are behind the merging of discourses in the world today. There are social practices, some of which non-discursive, that affect the state of affairs in late modernity. This thesis draws on Harvey’s historical-geographical theory of space and time. As earlier stated in (4.1), this is a theory of late modernity – where economic changes and social transformations brought about by advances in technological and neoliberal policies combine to affect social life. Education is one of the areas affected by these changes. The interdiscursive mix of ‘neoliberal’ and ‘government business’ (‘assessed and improved’, and ‘student learning’) can be understood in the light of organisational change (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999) where the public sector and private sector form a PPP to deliver public services. One of such changes is evident in the field of technology in education. “There are regular learning assessments so that student learning and teacher performance can be consistently assessed and improved; these are transmitted over cellular networks.” The collaboration between the private sector and public sector requires changes in the mode of delivery of such services – which is reflected in the merging of discourses. The interdiscursivity in the text therefore can be understood as a reflection of, and a strong driving force for processes of change towards a neoliberal society or an ‘intermix’ of the ‘public’ and ‘neoliberal’ sphere. At another level, the ‘disaster capitalism’ discourse in this text can be understood in the light of Harvey’s theory of space and time in which there is an insatiable thirst for absorption of excess capital and labour – which results in the expansionist implantation of capitalism in any corner of the world (Chouliaraki & Fairclough,1999). Annihilation of space by capitalism in all corners of the world can be achieved through a discourse that justifies business interests through reforms. Modality is high like in this extract (‘without completing these reforms’) which makes reforms inevitable. “Liberia’s poverty can never be addressed without adequate education for children and young people. To supply this, we need to turn around learning outcomes. Our schools are failing Liberian children and making them unable to perform in WAEC exams, university, or to gain employment. Without completing these reforms, children will continue to receive inadequate teaching and learning outcomes - another generation will be failed” This justification is possible in areas shocked by disaster or crises like Liberia – where Ebola epidemic and civil wars have wrecked the area. It is easier for neoliberal capitalism to take root in disaster-haunted areas like Liberia than in stable and rich democracies; the reason is that vulnerable societies can take worse options as there seems to be no other alternative. Therefore, this text can be understood in two perspectives namely one brought about by international organisastions and the social changes today due to technological and economic advances.

7.1.2. Memorandum of understanding between Government of Liberia and Bridge Just like the Concept note in (7.1.1) this text has a high degree of interdiscursivity – specifically ‘neoliberal’ and ‘government business’ discourses which are articulated together creating an interdiscursive mix. This mix can be understood in the light of the changes in education brought about by the donor rich nations. The OECD actively promotes PPPs; this organisation reports that it has had more than 300 papers and activities about PPPs. Among other things, OECD has commissioned research to provide educational services in many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America (Education International, 2009). These studies and other engagements have been very crucial as greater adoption of PPPs in education have been encouraged by these rich nations. Global partnership for education (GPE) has supported Liberian education system especially in physical infrastructure. The relationship between public and private seem inevitable. “The Government of Liberia seeks to contract with Bridge International as they have a proven model of school management, teacher support, and use of instructional materials that together deliver significantly improved literacy and numeracy gains as compared to the existing public system”. Therefore, the relationship between the private sector and governments, which is supported by the donor community may give rise to the merging of these discourses. Other social processes can be pinned to explain the emergence of this interdiscusive mix. Just like in the Concept note, this thesis draws on Harvey’s theory of space and time. In this theory, Harvey explains that in late modernity there is a distinct shift from commodity production to service provision as the turnover in the latter is faster. Education service provision is rewarding. There is also the taking advantage of crises, as explained in the concept of ‘disaster capitalism’, to create business or implement ‘reforms’. The ‘neoliberal’ discourse related to teacher and principal teacher recruitment reveals competition – some teachers will have to miss out being employed in the new partnership. Simply put, some will be outcompeted in the public-private engagement. “Every principal teacher will be subjected to a rigorous selection, testing and interview process, which will result in some teachers being offered a role and others not being offered. For principals and teachers from the existing school who are not offered a role in the pilot project at that school, GOL will place or staff them in an alternative location that is not part of the pilot project.” Harvey’s theory reveals that in late modernity short- term contracts is the norm and that skills become outdated fast. Re-skilling therefore is important in the new social and economic changes. Therefore, the diverse discourses articulated together in this text can be understood in light of Harvey’s theory of time and space. The interdiscursive mix in the text may reflect social and economic changes between the public and private spheres. Likewise, there are many sections where ‘neoliberal’ discourses are articulated singularly (without interdiscursivity); in such cases, the discourses may reflect established social order. One such example is the about placement examinations for pupils in partnership schools. The neoliberal discourses are articulated without any discourses from other discourse orders. The modality is also high (‘will be required’, ‘will be needed’) as seen below.

“All pupils (including those already studying at selected locations) will be required to take placement examinations. These placement examinations will be needed in order to ensure that pupils can be placed in the right class and not for selection for pilot schools.” Such stable discourses reproduces the dominant view and can be understood in now the established agreement between Liberia and Bridge – which is a takeover of public basic education service provision by a private player. This text therefore in summary may reflect two aspects of society: the transforming/changing one reflected in the interdiscursive mix, and the established one reflected in the purely ‘neoliberal’ discourses.

7.1.3. Why we are partnering to improve free public education in Liberia – Press release In the text, the ‘neoliberal’ string of discourses (‘corporate’, ‘disaster capitalism’, ‘new public management’) used in this text can be understood in the light of the economic and social changes that have dominated the world in the last forty years. Neoliberalism has been promoted by Bretton Woods institutions so much so that most countries in the world like those in Black Africa are obliged to adopt neoliberal reforms to qualify for loans and donor money. The post-2015 Agenda also focuses on neoliberal reforms including promoting PPPs in education in Black Africa and beyond to promote education for all (Menashy, 2019). This text was published as a press release shortly after Bridge had signed the Memorandum of Understanding with Government of Liberia, the purpose of which was the implementation of basic education in that country as can be seen in the extract below. “Bridge International Academies is honored to serve the Liberian people as the first of many partners under Partnership Schools for Liberia. In a pilot program, Bridge will implement its tried and tested model in 50 public primary schools, accessing approximately 20,000 children for the 2016 – 2017 academic year.” The dominant ‘neoliberal’ discourses (‘its tried and tested model’, ‘Partnership Schools for Liberia’) in the text may thus be a reflection of an established status quo in the partnership. The ‘neoliberal’ discourse helps to reflect the reproduction of the current state of affairs. Liberian education system is ‘privatised’ and the support comes from Liberia’s global partners who support their education system; such partners are GPE (see MoU). Other social theories of late modernity, just like in the previous two texts, can be drawn on to illuminate the prevalence of the ‘neoliberal’ discourses in this text. Harvey’s (1990) theory of space and time is employed again in this section. His theory reveals that societies do change, sometimes from forces within and without. Such changes to do with time and space are sometimes imposed through forces like conquest as it was in major wars yet others have been imposed in the present society through the course of capitalist development. The dominant ‘neoliberal’ discourses (‘proactive and successful partner’, ‘statistically significant learning gains’) in this text can be understood in light of the neoliberal’ free market economy such as deregulation, labour mobility and general global opening up of economies. Privatisation of education services for example has opened up opportunities for international chains like Bridge to open up business in Uganda, Kenya and so forth as reflected in the following extract.

“In its 8 years working in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria, Bridge has been a proactive and successful partner to parents and governments, delivering statistically significant learning gains for its pupils’ This occupation of space in these countries hence affects other parts in Black Africa like Liberia where this educational experience is replicated. The ‘regional’ space-time of Bridge analysed in the previous chapter under textual analysis helps to explain how global capitalism occupying one space in Black Africa can be a launch pad to pervade all corners of the region. Bridge schools in Kenya and Uganda are used as claims that the service provider has experience in education delivery services in Black Africa. In short, the ‘neoliberal’ discourses in the text are a reflection of societal forces: the social and economic changes sweeping the entire Black Africa in late modernity. Harvey’s theory of space and time can illuminate further the nature of discourses in this text. Harvey (1990) observes that social changes brought about by neoliberal and technological forces in the contemporary society may be imposed. In such cases society adapts to such changes through rejection or negotiation. The neoliberal discourses in this text can therefore be understood in light of actions by the global actors such as the World Bank. The Bank perceives LFPSs as the best option for the poor (Verger et al., 2018). The Bank supports private schooling in a bid to overcome ‘state failure’ to implement EFA; the World Bank’s 2020 Education Sector Strategy encourages IFC to finance LFPSs that help to provide education access to the poor in Black Africa and other low income regions (Verger et al., 2018). Bridge is one of the beneficiaries of IFC loans (Verger et al. 2018). The extract below cites the claims of the vitality of the private players like Bridge. “[..]train bright and dedicated teachers and equip them to change children’s lives. It will create employment for Liberia’s best and brightest, and it will provide the government with the tools it needs to collect data about attendance and learning outcomes in order to be able to improve all Liberian primary schools” The dominant neoliberal discourses or genre in the text (‘change children’s lives’, ‘collect data’, ‘create employment’) may therefore reflect neoliberal global players who shape global education in Black Africa in late modernity. The high modality (‘will create, ‘will provide’) in the above text is deontic (expressing strong obligations) which is a signal of power (Fairclough, 2003). The changes in Liberian education system that may be imposed by global financial structures could explain this situation in Liberia. As one of the poorest and yet the oldest republic in Black Africa, Liberia seems to have ‘negotiated’ the changes in education provision by adopting PPPs with LFPSs. In summary this text can be read from two perspectives; the discourses in the text implicate known discourse orders. The neoliberal discourse order produces most of the discourses in the text. Second, the social theory of late modernity (space and time) by Harvey (1990) links the current social changes to the global forces affecting societies today. These changes seem to be imposed by global players like the World Bank that are shaping national agendas of education in Black Africa. This last analysis in Fairclough’s model is the social practice in which discourses have been analysed in terms of the context in a wider society. CDA maps these discourses and identify and locate the power behind them. Harvey’s theory of space and time has been used to locate these discourses in light of the current changes in the world today. Harvey’s theory is a social theory of late modernity that helps to map discourses with aspects related with social theories, something CDA cannot easily achieve fully. Therefore, this thesis has employed a multi-perspectival approach to analyse data so that a full interpretation is realised (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). The next

sub-section is a discussion of the third research question, which appears by order of appearance as question one.

7.2. To what educational challenges are PPPs with LFPSs promising policy solutions in Liberia? Data from the three documents cite access and enrolment as major challenges wrecking the education system in Liberia, with Bridge press release putting children out of school at 42 percent. PPPs with LFPSs promise to extend access and increase enrolment to over 90 percent (see MoU). Both the concept note and MoU however reveal Bridge opting to take over schools in Monrovia and Harper – all highly urbanised cities yet only 50 percent of children in rural areas are enrolled in schools as compared to 77 percent in urban areas (see figure 1.4). The propensity for LFPSs to occupy urban centres is cited in the earlier literature where Omega schools concentrate in and around Accra, a capital city of Ghana (Riep, 2014) and a variety of LFPSs in Ajeromi-Ifelodun in Lagos Nigeria (Baum, Abdul-Hamid & Wesley, 2018). The Omega schools compete with other schools for pupils who are already accessing basic education just as the LFPSs vie for pupils around Ajeromi-Ifelodun. Thus Bridge, just like Omega schools and other LFPSs in Lagos, Nigeria, is not extending access to most pupils who are lacking schooling if it prefers urban areas; rather it is denying access to those pupils in rural areas that are not enrolled. If Liberia wants to attain 90 percent enrolment by 2021, then PPPs with LFPSs seems a far cry to the anticipated goal. The analysis shows the ‘regional’ space-time of Bridge as a construct; in this construct Bridge runs schools in urban centres in Kenya and Uganda yet it claims it is going to replicate its ‘tried and tested’ system in Liberia. However Bridge has no experience in running rural schools. Yet denying access to rural children is not the only exclusion about PPPs with LFPSs. Being a girl child opens avenues for exclusion in Liberia. The Concept note is silent about girls’ education yet the MoU just mentions girls’ learning without a clear description or detailed plan. The press release (see space- time of equitable and inclusive education in [6.3.1.4] ) deliberately constructs girls’ education in Liberia as a disaster. Coupled with girls’ education is education for pupils with disabilities – both physical and mental health; all documents are silent on this category of pupils. The equity dimension of PPPs with LFPSs is highly questionable given that Liberia is in Group 4 (see table 1.1.) – countries with the lowest gross enrolment ratio in Black Africa. As earlier noted in earlier research, Verger and Moschetti (2017) question the equity dimension of PPPs with LFPSs. Although their research was about high income countries, it suggests that issues about equitable education in Black Africa could even be worse owing to limited income levels. For example, the motivation for Bridge to trade its education services in Liberia could be purely to target the 179 billion US dollars of publically funded charter school market in low income economies like Black Africa (Riep, 2017) as stated in earlier research. Right from the materials Bridge commits GOL to have partnership schools around urban centres. The literature cites LFPSs’ propensity to have business around towns, all which limits equitable and inclusive education. This motive of providing private education services without the equity dimension is not uncommon with neoliberal capitalism. Access remains a major issue in this thesis; from the context of Liberia (see chapter 2), extreme poverty, poor health and disability all create many cases of vulnerability. From the Concept note, 64 percent of Liberians are below the poverty line yet there are no clear interventions from the PPPs with LFPSs to address those issues. As cited in earlier research, children from the wealthiest 20 percent of households in Black Africa have on average more than six times the opportunity of 97

reaching grade 9 than their counterparts in the poorest 40 percent of households (Lewin, 2009). This means family income is vital yet the PPPs with LFPSs do not have clear avenues of increasing access to this group that constitutes the majority in Liberia. It could be even worse for Liberia since it is in the bottom poorest countries in Black Africa. Yet another study by Bous and Farr (2019) as cited in earlier research reveal that PPPs consistently do better than public schools. This study included PPPs with LFPSs. In their 17– country study, the authors found that PPP schools disproportionately benefitted upper income students in the biggest number of countries in the group. The inclination of partnership schools in Liberia to favour urban centers where there are cellular networks may worsen the existing inequalities between rural and urban, given the fact that in the latter enrolment is 50 percent (see fig.1.4). Harvey’s theory of space and time reveals that class, gender, cultural and political differences are often sites of social conflict (Harvey, 1990). This includes having new definitions of what is the correct time and space for everything. In chapter 2, this thesis hinted that Black Africa cherished communal ethos and the public good which rhymed with their education before colonialism. Now there are new definitions of time and place according to the neoliberal logic. The new neoliberal definitions of space and time seem to favour urban communities with internet access. This limits EFA goals and works against all the vital SDGs 1, 2, 4, 5, 10 and 17 as indicated in chapter one. The neoliberal-laced interventions in PPPs with LFPSs undermine all the rights of the child and girls’ education. The argument about PPPs with LFPSs posed as increasing access is flawed; and neither does the partnership seem to increase efficiency. Bridge is cherry – picking better schools in urban areas and denying access to rural pupils. The idea of Liberia directing policy is questionable since experts of education ought to understand equity in education. The neoliberal logic of educational solutioneering (Atasay & Delavan, 2012) exacerbates inequalities in the region. Liberia is already a highly stratified society with 50% of pupils attending private schools (see sub-section 2.5). This is a major pitfall of PPPs in education as national priorities are distorted since there is limited attention to equity and equality (Draxler, 2012). If the partnership fails to address the equity dimension in the 50 percent pupils in public education system, as it is clear in chapter two, then majority of vulnerable children are fated to undergo worse exclusions. Teacher management is another policy challenge addressed by PPPs with LFPSs. Data materials indicate teachers as a root cause of poor performance of pupils. The partnership addresses this challenge through recruiting and retraining government and other qualified teachers and principal teachers not on government pay roll. This is done through a competitive selection, which would lead some formerly employed staff being left out. This teacher selection is also merged with competitive pupil selection into partnership schools through assessment tests. This would make pupils being placed in classes they did not anticipate if they failed the tests. Through data analysis, the reason for poor performance is obfuscated. The education system to which the teachers belong is omitted and teachers’ failures are amplified. Through SAPs, public expenditure for social services like education was highly reduced in Black Africa. If the education system could not inspect the teaching force before the partnership due to limited personnel, then it is questionable if the same system can inspect the work of LFPSs. LFPSs are motivated to make a profit through selling education services; their commitment to do that work to fulfill a right and serve the public good does not rhyme with their business ethics nor the objectives of the shareholders. As observed in earlier literature, LFPSs are riddled with controversies and to claim they can improve teacher management seems a flawed argument. In Uganda, Bridge schools were shut down in 2018 for refusal to meet standards on teacher certification and qualifications (Bous and Farr, 2019). This means the profit

motive transcends standards. It is highly questionable if Bridge in Liberia may not flout other measures in a bid to make profit, just as it does elsewhere like in Uganda. In this thesis, teacher management as one of the reasons for establishing PPPs with LFPSs seems weak. Another dimension of teacher management through retraining by Bridge is a reflection of the neoliberal philosophy and economic changes in late modernity. Harvey (1990) observes that for those who can find work, re-skilling is a regular and constant process as existing skills become outdated. Therefore employment becomes a competitive enterprise; in this partnership some teachers will not be employed which implies excess labour that is prone to exploitation. In terms of assessment tests, the partnership promotes the competitive element cited in the neoliberal logic. However this has implications as LFPSs are assessed on numeracy and literacy performance. Pupils with varying mental disabilities could be excluded. In earlier literature, cases of pupils in Punjab were excluded by LFPSs since funding was tagged to performance. PPPs with LFPSs can therefore worsen inclusive and equitable education which they purport they promote. Social Darwinism (rewarding the best) in this case may be promoted by PPPs with LFPSs in Liberia. In this case teacher management may not improve performance since the ministry of education may not have enough personnel to monitor LFPSs, whose interest is to gain profit. Pupil placement tests could also be an avenue of excluding vulnerable children from access. Without addressing public expenditure on personnel inspection, teacher management and pupil placement tests may not be fruitful in the overall education improvement through PPPs with LFPSs. PPPs with LFPSs yet address another challenge – monitoring attendance of both pupils and teachers. Bridge claims to address this challenge by using tablets, which do not only track pupils and teachers’ attendance but contain the curriculum and daily lesson materials as well. The material analysed shows tablets for each teacher have daily downloadable lesson materials. However as indicated in earlier literature, use of technology by LFPSs compensates for missing trained teachers whom they (LFPSs) cannot pay adequately (Bous & Farr, 2019). Omega schools in Ghana rely on scripted standardized lessons that are taught by unqualified teachers. But the use of technology in Liberia is controversial because Bridge uses tablets in Uganda and Kenya as tools for collecting user fees (through mobile money) and communicating to parents. Bridge also finds it cheaper to recruit high school students to teach pupils with these tablets than hiring ‘expensive’ qualified teachers in a bid to gain profit. However, in Liberia all teachers in the partnership are qualified and the GOL pays Bridge using other avenues (Riep, 2017). Learning outcomes in Liberia may not be improved by scripted lessons as this is a pedagogical blunder that encourages rote learning, not innovation as Bridge claims. As ActionAid educational expert David Archer noted, using scripted lessons is a Victorian model that takes people black 100 years; so it is not high-tech and modern innovation (Pilling, 2017). Using technology to aid teaching is not an innovative pedagogical intervention, rather it is a tool that annihilates time and space in late modernity. The theory of Harvey (1990) of time and space expounds flexibility in which companies like Bridge use technology to accelerate profit- making. It is basically through technology that Bridge monitors teachers and pupil attendance and thus minimizes physical human inspection. For Liberia, this is costly on learning outcomes and access as Bridge tablets can only work within limited internet supported coverage around urban centres. Therefore, technology in teaching may exclude thousands of children in rural areas which Bridge now shuns. This is majorly a tool of capital accumulation rather than a pedagogical innovation.

In conclusion, this section has attempted to discuss the first question but logically the third according to CDA as it is part of the social practice. In the above discussion, a few examples of the challenges PPPs with LFPSs aim to solve have been expounded. Majorly, it is questionable if the partnership can address those challenges as they claim. The next section discusses a more overarching system of neoliberalism in relation to basic education in Black Africa.

7.3. PPPs, LFPSs, ideology and power There is a broad movement that aims to profit from education spaces in Black Africa by making public education seem a monumental failure through ‘free’ market logic (Atasay & Delavan, 2012). As earlier stated in chapter two, Black Africa succumbs to a net loss of 58 billion US dollars annually majorly through multi-national corporations’ actions such as trade ‘misinvoicing’. The open economy facilitates influx of capital and labour into the region. Through ‘disaster capitalism’ Group 4 countries (see fig.1.3) are constructed in a discourse that makes them susceptible to all forms of manipulation. Liberia belongs to Group 4; the Ebola crisis and the civil war in this country created fault lines for neoliberal influence into the country. The effect of SAPs in Liberia which led to underfunding in public services like education created a crisis just like any other country in Black Africa would be affected. Figures 1.1 and 1.2 highlight the effect of SAPs in terms of enriching Wall Street businesses. Hegemony too influences policy and the failing Liberian education system is solutioneered through PPPs with LFPSs. The donor community such as the OECD, World Bank, DFID and others support PPPs and a contrary view of strengthening public education system may not be accepted. Such circumstances are not uncommon. In ‘disaster capitalism’ as earlier stated in chapter 4, victims can be hailed into subjectivities in need of assistance; these can include victims of Ebola and the poor education system in Liberia. The by-standers are also hailed to help – these are populations not affected by the ‘disaster’ but would like to help and share their resources with victims, in this case those of Liberia. Donor money for Liberia and other sites is raised in this way. Liberia has had global partners that finance their budget yet others like GPE have helped with infrastructure (World bank, 2016). What neoliberals do is to intercept that money at reception for a profit not as a public service as earlier explained in chapter 4. Therefore PPPs with LFPSs is a well- thought scheme by the neoliberals to feed off the misery of Liberian people who are facing surmountable education problems. In the MoU, Bridge receives 50 US dollars more than non- partnership schools, suggesting that it receives a total of 100 US dollars per pupil yet other government schools receive half. As noted in earlier research, Bridge has received money from DFID and World Bank’s IFC, but Liberia also receives grants to fund its deficit budget in education from other donor sources. It is such money that is ‘mined’ by corporations like Bridge. Hegemonic powers shaping decisions like those about PPPs with LFPSs in Liberia is testimony that their goal is more ideological than moral. Therefore if Bridge shuns rural areas, the motive is purely for profit as opposed to extending access. PPPs with LFPSs in Liberia conceal ideological facets so much so that the GOL and a section of Liberian people may not perceive it. PPPs with LFPSs reproduce domination and are a continuation of SAPs, now poverty reduction strategy policies. PPPs with LFPSs are now being naturalized and have accomplished hegemonic status (Fairclough, 1992), but this narrative breeds inequalities for the thousands of Liberian children who are excluded from basic education access in rural regions. In this thesis, World bank, IMF, DFID, OECD and other structures are implicated in discourses promoting PPPs with LFPSs. Fairclough (1993) observes that discourse, ideology and power may be

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unclear to the parties involved, which he refers to as opacity. For Liberia to adopt PPPs with LFPSs rather than strengthen the present public education system with more funds may portray an amoral disposition; this is because many children are not catered for in the MoU like the disabled, rural poor and the vulnerable. When international corporations do ‘misinvoicing’ they cheat Black Africa of the revenue in taxes. Bridge is an international corporation that may declare losses in a bid to avoid paying taxes to get that ‘profit’ since that is what it was created for. That is why more money flows out of Black Africa than what flows in; as earlier stated in chapter 2. Black Africa spends over 21 billion dollars annually in debt repayment, courtesy of SAPs . In summary, PPPs with LFPSs is part of a big network of neoliberal structures whose motive is not the public good but for profit. A radical change of privatizing public education in Liberia without strengthening public education system to provide oversight is a blunder to the country that history will live to tell. About Liberia’s adoption of PPPs with LFPSs, the UN Special rapporteur on the right of the child observed that Liberia violated its legal and moral obligation to schooling; he opposed the idea of supporting business in education and advised government in Black Africa to increase on public education expenditure (Pilling, 2017).

7.4. Liberia and Uganda: A comparison of systems Though the two countries are far apart, there are common features in both. They both use English language as their national language and all have a colonial past. Both have many indigenous tribes with varying languages and dialects. The pair has each experienced a coup d'état and civil wars and are both vulnerable to pandemics; both have suffered from Ebola (CIA, 2020a; CIA, 2020b). There are some contrasts; Uganda’s population of over 40 million people is eight times higher than that of Liberia. Majority of Ugandans live in rural areas (CIA, 2020b) as opposed to Liberians who live in urban centres. In terms of education, both countries share some aspects. Both countries have private and government primary schools. Although pre-primary education is supported by government in Liberia, it is exclusively private in Uganda (Begue-Aguado et al., 2020). This puts extra burden on poor parents who find it difficult to support children in school. Although 50 percent enrolment in Liberia is in private schools (World Bank, 2016), Uganda’s private schools account for 20 percent (Begue-Aguado et al., 2020). Both countries have old primary schools that are religious founded. In Uganda however, all day mission schools are supported by the government yet in Liberia parents and guardians pay user fees to support those schools. The sharp contrast between Uganda’s primary schools with those of Liberia is the capitation grant for each child per year. Each Ugandan pupil is entitled to a capitation grant of an equivalent of 2.7 US dollars per year, in most cases paid in arrears (Begue-Aguado et al., 2020) yet in Liberia each child receives an equivalent of 50 US dollars per year and if that child is in a partnership then he or she receives double the money (Romero, 2017). UNESCO estimates the minimum cost to deliver decent quality primary education in low income countries like Black Africa is 197 US dollars (Bous, 2019). This means both Uganda and Liberia are performing poorly in basic primary funding. This suggests that whatever policies are put in place, funding remains a fundamental factor behind the limited progress in improving basic education in Black Africa. As noted in earlier literature, the quality of education is determined by the cost – the lower the cost the poorer the education services.

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In relation to PPPs with LFPSs in Liberia, it is important to note that change in education providers is not enough – funding basic education is very important. Liberia devotes 15 percent of its budget to education (World Bank, 2016) and Uganda provides a total of 11 percent of its budget on education (Begue-Aguado et al. 2020). This means that both countries poorly facilitate basic education sector which is truly a foundation of children’s education. Another link between Uganda and Liberia is that both host Bridge schools. In Uganda Bridge schools started in 2013 and are located in 63 sites; only one is licensed by Kumi Municipal council in the far East of Uganda (Museveni, 2016). All schools are located in urbanized areas, including slums near city centres. Bridge International Academy is not registered by the Ministry of education as is the formality (Museveni, 2016) but by Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), a body that registers businesses like sand mining, fishing or cement production. The schools are housed in make-shift structures of corrugated iron sheets with poor sanitation and hygiene (Museveni, 2016). Bridge hires high school graduates and drop outs without professional training in teaching; all schools do not conform to the Ugandan curriculum and curriculum delivery methods (Museveni, 2016). In Uganda, Bridge is a private school but it can only ‘compete’ with other poorly facilitated UPE schools whose pupils receive a capitation grant of 2.7 US dollars each per year. Bridge in Uganda is involved in many controversies ranging from “legality of the establishment, conformity to Ugandan curriculum, teacher professionalism, infrastructure and adherence to the academic calendar” (Museveni, 2016, p.3). Bridge in Uganda avoids paying genuine taxes; it pays for a trading license (Museveni, 2016) to local authorities as opposed to corporate tax. A trading license is an annual tax paid by small business like lock ups to the local municipal authorities. As noted in earlier literature, Bridge in Uganda was one time forced to close in 2018. Yet in Liberia, Bridge is a major provider of education services. Bridge, as noted in data analysis, cites its good work in Kenya and Uganda. The ‘regional’ space-time of Bridge in the analysis portrays Bridge as a formidable education provider. The only difference between Bridge in Uganda and the one in the partnership in Liberia is that in the latter, qualified Liberian teachers are hired and are paid by GOL. In Uganda however, majorly unqualified teachers are hired by Bridge.

In summary, this subsection has highlighted the basic connections between Uganda and Liberia. There are similar backgrounds and some differences. This subsection also shines torch on the services of Bridge in Uganda and cites fundamental problems in the school chain, which are also corroborated in earlier literature such as LFPSs employing unqualified high school graduates. The influence behind Bridge in Liberia and Uganda cannot be easily dismissed. In both countries, Bridge enjoys global support from individuals and IOs as noted earlier in literature.

7.5. Misgivings and mitigations In this thesis, there is evidence that PPPs with LFPSs may not be the best option for Liberia and Black Africa at large in improving issues of access and enrolment to basic education. PPPs in education as well as LFPSs are all ‘offsprings’ of neoliberalism whose major focus is profit, not issues of rights and public good. From the 1970s, issues of development in Black Africa have been affected in different fashions. The SAPs in the Washington consensus caused civil strife in low income countries. The post-Washington consensus tried to mitigate this crisis through poverty reduction strategy policies. For over 40 years, neoliberal solutions are ever evolving – now PPPs with LFPSs seem sinister too. I draw on Atasay and Delavan (2012) that all the jobs and other

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similar solutions neoliberalism promises all involve planned obsolescence. This implies that the solutions of today will “themselves become tomorrow’s disasters to be re-solutioneered” (Atasay & Delavan, 2012, p.533). For example, the partnership in Liberia today provides basic education services but these are not equitable and inclusive. Next, they will blame the GOL for drawing a poor programme, just the way the SAPs limited public expenditure in order for poor countries to repay their loans (Harvey, 2005). This reduction of public expenditure on social services like education has led to poor schooling in Liberia and Black Africa. In the analysis, poorly funded education systems are obfuscated and the teachers are blamed for not assessing pupils and all the poor learning outcomes. Therefore PPPs with LFPSs, right from the earlier literature to the analysis portray that they are unreliable and increase inequalities. The work by Bridge in Uganda suggests these may be ‘quack’ education providers whose poor services are bound to be replicated in Liberia. By 2021, when the partnership is set to end, what will be the benefits of the partnership? However, there are success stories about good basic education in Black Africa to emulate from some countries. In chapter 2 section (2.4) South Africa is one the countries in Group 1 (see fig.1.3) that has a comprehensive education programme. Countries need not adopt PPPs with LFPSs. South African parliament allocates the highest percentage of the national budget to the education sector. At provincial level, over 90 percent of the budget goes to teachers’ salaries and education personnel. The country has a comprehensive equitable and inclusive education plan (see section 2.4) even at provincial level. There is need therefore to strengthen basic education through funding. Two issues should be advanced: more funding to public education and adopting a compressive equitable and inclusive education for all children.

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Chapter Eight: Concluding remarks The aim of this thesis was to explore the kind of proposed basic education services provided under PPPs with LFPSs. Specifically the objectives of the study were threefold: to understand the nature of educational reforms advocated in PPPs with LFPSs, to probe the nature of the relationship between government and private sector bodies in PPPs and to locate the power within these relationships, and to identify the equity and inclusiveness in the basic education services provided by PPPs with LFPSs. The study relied on three primary sources documents namely The Government of Liberia-Bridge Partnership Concept Note, The Memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Education – Government of Liberia and Bridge International Academies, and a press release by Bridge entitled: Why we are partnering to radically improve free public education in Liberia. The study employed Fairclough’s CDA – theory and method as well as the operationalized space-times theory by Harvey (1990) to study the above materials. The combination of the above theories and method was a deliberate attempt to give this inquiry a multi-perspectival standpoint (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999) from which valid conclusions would be drawn.

8.1. Conclusions In regard to the first objective of the nature of reforms advocated in the PPPs with LFPSs, this study noted issues of access and enrolment, teacher management and actual teaching to improve learning outcomes especially numeracy and literacy in basic education. The analysis corroborates concerns in earlier literature that indeed PPPs with LFPSs have a high propensity of favouring urban areas and avoiding rural communities. The two documents but the press release categorically indicate Bridge committing GOL to locate partnership schools in areas around Monrovia and Harper. The partnership also would respond to teacher management and pupil learning outcomes through retraining and testing respectively. The analysis shows how partnership teachers would use tablets to deliver curriculum. From the analysis, the conclusion is that PPPs with LFPSs exacerbates access and enrolment issues which they claim to address by opting to focus on urban areas as revealed too in earlier literature. This is worse for Liberia where most more than 50 percent of pupils in rural areas are not enrolled. However, this study discerns a weakness on part of national governments who should provide good infrastructure such as good roads, electricity and internet to the rural areas. That is not the duty of the private education providers to do that work. This study therefore differs from others that mainly put the blame on private providers in neglecting rural communities. In regard to probing the nature of the relationship between government and private sector bodies in PPPs and to locate the power within these relationships, this study identified that indeed there were plenty of opportunities LFPSs could exploit to their advantage. From the analysis of space-times, especially ‘global’ and ‘regional’ space times of educational reforms, Bridge and Liberian public education and others, there were signals that LFPS like Bridge has global backing and that would compromise its relationship with Liberia. For example, DFID and World Bank all support Bridge financially but Liberia also gets other donor money to support its recurrent budget. Any differences between Bridge and GOL would automatically bid Bridge the winner since it is

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perceived stronger. This idea correlates with earlier literature that questions the importance of PPPs working with weaker economies since big corporations may compromise the relationship (Miraftab, 2004). In such cases, ideological strength would align with the private sector. This is a major problem with the private sector. For instance, Bridge in Uganda evades paying corporate taxes but pays trading license instead to local authorities at the Municipal levels (Museveni, 2016). Though the analysis does not pin such explicit occurrences in the documents, the space-times mapping shows some form of power. This may suggest international LFPSs could thrive best in corrupt or weak states. International LFPSs are more likely go to Group 4 countries (see fig. 1.3) if there is money to gain such as donations or lump sum money from governments (case of PPP in Liberia). Otherwise international school chains concentrate in Group 2 and 3 countries (fig.1.3) operating as private schools, not as PPPs with LFPSs. The reason is that there is money in such countries. On the other hand, Black African states should devote more money to fund public education other than casting blame on private companies to carry out public education services. Bridge and other LFPSs may not compete in countries with a good expenditure on education, notwithstanding the SAPs that affect many economies in Black Africa. In response to the last objective of identifying the equity and inclusiveness in the basic education services provided by PPPs with LFPSs, this inquiry shows that Bridge and the GOL do not adhere and even respond to this issue. Equitable and inclusive education related to gender equality, pupils with different physical and mental impairments are not vital issues with PPPs with LFPSs in Liberia. Related to this category are the poor vulnerable pupils who are located in villages that may be excluded from educational access. The concept note is silent on these categories of pupils while the MoU just cites girls’ education without clear descriptions. This revelation rhymes with earlier literature that questions the equity and inclusive nature about PPPs with LFPSs. While this is a weakness in PPPs with LFPSs, national governments in Black Africa ought to desist from having their educational issues being entirely market oriented. The government ought to adopt workable welfare alternatives. Be as it may, some PPPs with LFPSs could be productive. There could be LFPSs that are committed to both social and profit since the concept seems viable and yet others may not. Bridge’s intention to evade taxes could trigger the fears raised in chapter 2 about companies that carry out ‘misinvoicing’ and steal millions of dollars from Black Africa. This inquiry casts doubt on Liberia’s bid to achieve SDGs 1, 2, 4 5, 10 and 17 as indicated in chapter one if it makes such agreements in future. It is even difficult to explain the sustainability of education of primary school pupils after graduation. If the same education system could fail primary pupils, how will they ensure that once they join secondary, they will pass and go to university? If the primary department has been weak, so is the secondary section since they are under the same ministry. The neoliberal logics of educational solutioneering (Atasay & Delavan, 2012) in Liberia may boomerang within a short time. The partnership in Liberia is due to end in 2021.What does it cost for Liberia to boost the public sector to deliver public basic education? What does it lose if it opts for private providers? Will Liberia renew the partnership beyond 2021? These questions may remain unanswered, or they may be depending on the different neoliberal time zones one is located. This research is a case study but it also binds Black Africa given the commonalities in the region as implied from figure 1.3. The space-times as a feature in textual analysis shows how Black Africa is now used as a site for capitalism to flourish . Though the results cannot be generalized, there are lessons to draw.

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8.2. Areas for future research During this inquiry, I noticed the power of communication on the part of international companies and organizations while advocating for their particular goals. Topics such as: “ ‘Disaster capitalism’ in the framing of gender subjectivities in Black African schools, the rural educational dilemma in neoliberal –haunted Black Africa; Bread or books? - tough choices for slum dwellers and urban communities in Black Africa” could be broad options to extend this research further. Comparisons could be made between Group 1 (see fig. 1.3) countries and those of Latin America such as Chile or Argentina. Group 1 countries like South Africa invest enough money in basic education. Group 1 countries and Group 4 countries could be compared too within the region in regard to basic education. An interesting comparison would be between countries with big economies like Nigeria (Group 3) and those with small economies like Uganda (Group 2). This comparison could highlight weaknesses big economies like Nigeria commit to be outcompeted by small economies like Uganda in basic education provision. Nigeria is the biggest economy in Black Africa. It is four years now since the partnership started in Liberia; some of the beneficiaries are now in secondary. Research at secondary school level is vital in Liberia to find out how the government is handling issues reacted to teaching and testing, teachers attendance and learning outcomes of ‘partnership’ pupils from primary, now in secondary. This would give insight whether partnership schools did a good foundation. It would also give insight what government is doing or not doing before another solutioneering is sought.

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Appendix

Appendix 1: Concept Note http:// globalinitiative-escr.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/GOL-Bridge-partnership-concept-note- 2.2-2-clean.docx.

GOL-private provider partnership – transforming education outcomes The below note outlines a proposal for a partnership between the Government of Liberia (GOL) and private providers of education. The government has two years to create the start of a lasting impact on learning outcomes in Liberia. We will not compromise on our commitment to basic education that is free at the point of use. But, just as we have private providers of an end service in other sectors, while the service to the user remains publicly funded, we believe that there is expertise and innovation that non-state providers can bring into how we run high standard, excellent schools. We have seen this first hand by visiting some of the successful models already operating in Africa.

We intend to start a pilot with Bridge International, who McKinsey have assessed as the provider on the continent with the lowest costs and the best learning outcomes. We are doing this to test the concept and to start improving outcomes for children now. Meanwhile, the GOL, partners and education economists will develop the standards, selection criteria and performance management framework for a larger scale public-private partnership (PPP). The intention is to contract out all primary and Early Childhood Education schools over the next 5 years, whilst maintaining government control of the education system. This expansion will only take place based on proven performance (better learning outcomes) in the pilot. The goal is to ensure Liberian children receive the education provision that impacts on their literacy and numeracy outcomes in the fastest possible time.

1. Education System in Liberia Liberia is the sixth poorest country in the world5 with 64% of people below the poverty line. Poverty relief will only come about with advances in education. The literacy rate of 15-24 years olds is 54%6. Since 2006, we have spent a lot in the education sector, but learning outcomes are still wanting. Only 17% of grade 3 children tested can read an adequate number of words per minute7; 47% of the 27,600 students who sat the Senior High Exam (WAEC) in 2014 failed. In 2013, all 25,000 school-leavers who applied to university in Liberia failed the entrance exam: “students lacked enthusiasm and did not have a basic grasp of English”. Students are finishing their education illiterate and unable to move onto further education, employment or to create entrepreneurial opportunities that will take them out of poverty. We have noted the shift of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) towards emphasizing quality in education and learning outcomes. The SDGs link education to reducing poverty and maintaining peace

5World Bank data, 2011-15, based on GDP per capita 6 http://www.uis.unesco.org/DataCentre/Pages/country- profile.aspx?code=LBR 7 USAid study, 2013-14 116 and stability. These goals are essential to Liberia, especially as an election approaches. Without literacy and employability improving, young people are without hope and will more easily resort to violence. This is why we are ready to take radical action to see a step change in education. 2. How can private providers help? At the root of these problems are poor quality teachers, low teacher attendance, too few school hours spent in the classroom, poor incentives for teachers to perform (no assessment of teacher performance, and student learning outcomes are not measured until the 9th grade). Private providers of education in the developing world are tackling these problems in a number of ways. Bridge international is one of those providers. It addresses the above problems by: • Selecting and training teachers to rigorous standards of performance in a short time period (Bridge has not had its training certified by a government body to date) • Providing the curriculum, down to each lesson plan and its learning activities, on a tablet; updating lessons in response to observed learning outcomes • There are regular learning assessments so that student learning and teacher performance can be consistently assessed and improved; these are transmitted over cellular networks • Teacher professional development, including accountability for attendance and pupil learning throughout the year; teachers not responding to coaching are dismissed Bridge pupils reach fluency in reading twice as fast as those in neighbouring schools - almost 10 more words per minute. Comprehension also improves: students answer 9.4% more problems correctly than neigbhouring counterparts. For maths, students answer 11.9% more quantitative discrimination questions correctly. Their private schools are opening up in Uganda and Nigeria, as well as Kenya. In the Indian State of Andra Pradesh, they are trialling a government-owned model, more similar to what we want to try in Liberia. Whether services are contracted to Bridge or any other provider, the assessment of success will be based on whether student literacy and numeracy improves faster than in comparator schools. We want to see quick improvements in outcomes and fair competition to ensure value for money. Therefore, in parallel, to starting this pilot, we will establish the policy framework to scale the PPP nationally, maintiaining government standards while engaging with a wider range of competitors. 3. Education is a public good and a human right. How will GOL uphold these responsibilities? This is exactly why the partnership is being developed. GOL will be the contractor – holding the providers to rigorous performance standards and controlling how the system works. For example, ensuring access to basic education is always free, defining performance standards (especially learning outcomes), defining teacher pay levels, controlling the curriculum, selecting the examining boards in use, ensuring school buildings and the school environment is safe for children. GOL will also be responsible for taking care of the long term ‘health’ of the sector. For example, ensuring schools could continue if providers left in a crisis, making sure the curriculum is locally appropriate. The government will continue to manage secondary schools and technical training (TVET) colleges. These should have an intake of students coming in at a far higher standard than currently, leading to improved senior high (WAEC) results and long term employability. 4. How will the pilot work? As we move to contract out schools on a year by year basis, we want to have as much learning as possible. The government needs to test that the Bridge model, assesessed by McKinsey as successful in Kenya and Uganda, can work with non fee paying schools. It is possible the learning outcomes Bridge or another privately-funded provider achieve are due in large part to parental engagement, or the background of private school pupils. We will assess this impact year on year. Bridge or another provider’s model may fail to deliver better outcomes when parents are not paying or the children are the same as would have been in the public school. The government also needs to test how a private 117 provider goes about building a community of engaged teachers from the existing civil service? How many teachers will pass the provider’s standards? This will have great influence on employment of teachers, which is of critical concern to the GOL and must be tracked closely. The pilot will be trialled in (Monrovia? Harper? Elsewhere?) 5. How will the longer term framework be developed? While the pilot is being tested, GOL will work with partners and experts to define the legal framework and standards for a nationwide partnership with private providers. This will include consideration of performance measures, curriculum standards, teacher training standards, teacher pay freedoms and civil service tenure, building quality, maintenance budgets, ensuring the model is profitable and attractive to private providers, how providers will be selected and engaged, how performance will be monitored etc. The discussion will take place with the major donors to the project, experts in PPP contracting in education, and will include consultation with private providers. 6. How will success be measured? Performance measures will be agreed with donors, by April 2016. We expect these to include: - Improved child literacy levels. This will mean putting in place learning assessments at ECE and primary grades for both pilot and comparator schools. This aligns with the government’s plan to put in place early grade reading assessments (priority 1 of Getting to Best) - Improved child numeracy levels as compared to comparator (a numeracy learning assessment will need to be approved for pilot and comparator schools) - We would be open to other learning outcome measures (such as verbal reasoning) in discussion with donors and subject to funding availability to put these in place - We will use learning assessments at all grades as these are part of the Bridge model. At present Liberian learning outcomes are assessed for the first time in Year 9. For the pilot period, Bridge is to submit a draft M&E plan by mid-February, which will be reviewed by GOL and donors and agreement on M&E plan by April. For the scaled project there will be performance measures develpoed with partners, and ideally education economists, so that there is rigorous performance-based contracting, with annual check points for Government of Liberia to exit or change providers if results are not shown over an agreed period.

7. Required budget

The total budget is estimated as $158m over 5 years (including contingency at 15%). We will continnue to refine these as the contract is defined and we consult with providers. We would like these costs to be split between donors and GOL, with a gradual increase of the GOL contribution. Assuming results continue to be shown, government would take over steady state funding after Year 5 at a cost of $37.7m. The budget consists of scaling to 2750 ECE and Primary schools with: • $4.5m for teacher salaries (annual cost - $160 basic, scaling to $250 for more senior roles) • $2.25m for refurnishing (in half of all schools, one off cost) • $25m for fuller refurbishment/ construction (a third of schools, one off cost) • $2.75m per year maintenance (annual cost) • $91.8m Education system costs (Curriculum development, teacher training content, community engagement content, software/operating systems, tablets/hardware etc) • $200,000 to implement robust M&E plan to compare performance across Bridge and comparator schools during pilot (one off cost, but could be used for wider rollout)

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• Total cost is 138m This would break down as: Pilot phase: $3m design – outside. Year 1, Sept 2016 Outside: 8m Liberia: 0m Year 2, Sept 2017 Outside: 15m Liberia: 5m Year 3, Sept 2018 Outside: 27m, Liberia: 10m Year 4, Sept 2019 Outside: 38m, Liberia: 20m Year 5, Sept 2020 Outside 47m, Liberia: 30m Steady state from 2021, c.37m per year (including teacher pay, building maintenance, school building etc) But not including secondary and TVET education. Note that a condition of GPE funding is that the education budget increase to at least 20% of the national budget. Based on the current Liberian budget, 20% of the national budget would mean an education budget of $120m (almost trebling the current education budget). However, if Liberia is willing to spend 60% of its budget on Primary and Early Childhood Education, it would need an overall education budget of $61m to get to maintain the PPP at 37m a year after 2021. This is only around a 17m increase in the education budget over the next 5 years. With $20m contingency from donors the figures breakdown as: Years 1-5: $91m donors; $65m from GOL and $37m annually from GOL after year 6. Therefore, 5 year programme total is 158m (138m +20m contingency). The detailed break down is as below.

Year 0 3,000,000 Design phase 1 7,723,950 50 schools 2 14,966,900 350 schools 3 27,128,300 650 schools 4 37,917,950 1850 schools 5 46,834,250 2750 schools

Prog Total $137,571,350 + contingency at 15%

8. How will accountability for funds be assured? What will be the instiutional arrangements? The first £3m of funds will go to Bridge International for pilot design. We hope the remaining $11m for the first year, and funding for all future years will be managed in a Pool Fund, with a lead agency monitoring fund management. The goals of the Pool Fund would be clearly defined to only incorporate performance based contracting for primary and early years learning outcomes.

9. Potential implementation timeline The government’s intended timeline is below:

Time What Activities Jan- Aug Pilot design phase Pilot design to test initial concept.Development of custom student 16 (50 schools) and teacher content to meet GOL standards and needs, including integrated, full suite of teacher and learner resource materials for all years of ECD and Primary; creating “changemaker” teacher and

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principal training programme; engaging existing GOL staff in “opt-in” recruiting programme; modifying technology operating systems for audit, support, and digital publishing; setting up back-office support for school system (pilot); setting up M&E programme. Establishing, consulting on and communicating performance measures for the pilot (by April 2016) Agreeing, with Ministry of Finance, the GOL contribution to the wider procurement (based on successful performance year on year) Jan-Dec Developing the Launching a process to develop the longer term policy and standards 16 partnership: framework for full scale PPP across Liberia standards, Establish a Pool Fund for future funds performance Working with Public Procurement & Concessions Commission (PPCC) monitoring, and Ministry of Finance to set up the procurement procurement April- Active Establishing schools takes around 10 months of preparation. In order Dec 16 engagement of to ensure we have a full range of bidders in the scaling of the pilot, other providers there will be early outreach to different school providers on the continent. Sep 16 Pilot launch Pilot begins in selected schools (50 schools) Baseline learning assessments in background community of school age children in July – August; pilot and control schools in September. Endline in June-July 2017. Internal assessments within pilot schools available to GOL at of each term. These will continue as the project scales. Exit clauses to be included in the contract so that if performance does not continue year on year, Government of Liberia can exit or replace providers. Jan 17 Procurement Based on first term’s results, and continued support for the project, launch will go out to tender on remaining schools. The preferred contractor will be contacted and can start preparing for Sep 17 school year. Contract signing will be subject to improved outcomes at end of term 2. Each year of continuation of the contract will be based on performance not dropping below set levels. April 17 Contract signing Subject to the pilot having proven results for a second term running, (for 4 years) the contract will be signed with the preferred provider (or providers if we decide the scale is too great for one provider). Each year of continuation of the contract will be based on performance not dropping below set levels. Sep 17 Year 1 rollout The successful provider starts up in another 300 schools. (350 schools) OR a range of providers take on 100 schools each. Sep 18 Year 2 rollout Based on performance, the succesful provider starts up in another (950 schools) 600 schools OR several successful providers start up in 600 schools Sep 19 Year 3 rollout Based on performance, the successful provider starts in 900 schools (1850 schools) OR several successful providers continue expanding their chains Sep 20 Year 4 rollout Based on performance, the succesful provider(s) roll out across the (nationwide country, approximately another 900 schools OR several successful coverag, approx providers expand their chains across the country and compete/ share 2750 schools) best practice for Liberia and internationally

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10. Summary

Liberia’s poverty can never be addressed without adequate education for children and young people. To supply this, we need to turn around learning outcomes. Our schools are failing Liberian children and making them unable to perform in WAEC exams, university, or to gain employment. Without completing these reforms, children will continue to receive inadequate teaching and learning outcomes - another generation will be failed.

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