Introduction to the ISSI

The International Sustainable Schooling Initiative is the name for this organization that will; fundraise for, own and operate the schools. Initially the schools will be in Bangladesh, but the goal is to eventually expand to other countries, hence the 'International' part of the name.


It is hard for me to put a description of the organization here, since we are continuously discussing with each other trying to refine how to effectively to organize the organization. I will try and describe it in general terms though.

In Canada, the US and the UK(so far) we will be collecting donations and looking for investors. The funds collected in these countries will be transferred to our partners on the ground in Bangladesh to fund the creation of the first school and scholarships for the first students. Our representative in Bangladesh - Babor Ali, Bangladesh Country Coordinator - will then oversea the construction and hiring of staff for the school. Babor has been working with the Grameen Bank for 20+ years as a Branch Manager and then the International Department of Grameen Bank - which is where I met him. Babor and his wife, an English Teacher in Dhaka, are very passionate about schooling and will bring the experience in both running a business and education that we need to be successful.

Initially scholarships will be provided to the students using donations that we collect. Donors will be able to sponsor a student for anywhere between a year to the entire six years that they will be attending our school (if they start in Kindergarten). In the long run the plan is for each school to be able to fund its own scholarship fund. This will mean that students in the community who are able to afford the tuition will be subsidizing the tuition of other students in the same community. This situation is preferred over one where everyone pays a lower tuition and no scholarships are provided because this way it is possible for the extremely poor to attend the school and pay almost no tuition. In areas where it is not possible for a school to fund its own scholarship fund then a portion of the profits from other schools in the country will be used.

Initially I was envisioning setting up a endowment which would provide a reliable, sustainable number of scholarships. However in numerous discussions with the other members of the ISSI we decided that the amount of money that would be required to set up an endowment could be put to better use opening another school. In addition the return on investment for the schools is higher than we would likely be able to achieve by investing an endowment somewhere.

After the first school is built and it can support its own scholarship fund, donations will be directed towards funding the creation of a second school. As mentioned in my last post - profits from the schools will be used to fund the creation of more schools. The donation will be used to speed up this process and allow for even more schools to be built.

We are not trying to take over education from the Government, we are just trying to provide an alternative option that has a high standard for education and is affordable to the poor. By doing this, hopefully we can reduce the pressure on the government system, and force other private schools to improve to compete with us. It is not important who provides a higher level of education, as long as someone does.

Cheers,
Michael