To end extreme poverty tomorrow, we must educate children today.
Opportunity's Education Finance (EduFinance) believes that schools with access to capital and training for school leaders and teachers means improved quality of education for students. We partner with financial institutions to increase the ability of independent non-state local schools to provide affordable, quality education. At the same time, we connect parents with the resources necessary to send their children to those schools. By connecting private sector finance to education providers in low- and middle-income countries, we are tackling the global education crisis and helping more children attend better schools.
The Need
Research shows that giving children access to good education reduces poverty and inequality, increases life expectancy, and gives women and girls more decision-making power. However, the world faces a dual crisis of access and learning. Today, more than 251 million children and youth are out of school, while millions more are in classrooms but failing to learn even the most basic skills (UNESCO). In low- and middle-income countries, 70% of 10-year-olds cannot read and understand a simple text—a measure of “learning poverty” that rises to 90% in the poorest countries (World Bank).
A key driver of this education deficit is insufficient investment. Low- and lower-middle-income countries face a staggering annual financing gap of US $97 billion to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goal 4—quality education (UNESCO). Without increased, innovative financing to expand schools, retain students, and strengthen teaching, the world will fall dramatically short of its 2030 education goals.
Education Finance Programs and Products
Opportunity EduFinance, given its unique position in the non-state education market, continues to leverage its expertise and experience to update the sizing analysis of the non-state education market in low- and middle-income countries. Our annual publication of The Affordable Non-State School Sector Report provides more details about that sector and our impact on it.
School Improvement Loans
School improvement loans set the stage for rapid and sustainable school improvement, ensuring more students gain access to a better education. These loans are used by school owners to invest in their schools' most pressing needs.
School owners use school improvement loans for:
- Improving infrastructure like building new classrooms, bathrooms, or dormitories—all of which are important to improve attendance and enrollment, especially for girls
- Improving educational resources by hiring new teachers to reduce class sizes, or purchasing textbooks, classroom supplies, desks, or computers
- Enhancing health and safety by adding metal roofs, concrete floors, security fencing, and wells, piping, or filtration systems for clean water
School Fee Loans
School fee loans help parents who earn irregular or seasonal incomes keep their children in school year-round. A lack of cash at the beginning of the school term often results in a child not enrolling or being pulled out of school. School fee loans ease the pressure of upfront educational costs, effectively spreading out the costs of children's education. These loans prevent school dropouts or missed classes during times of household financial uncertainty, when parents may struggle to pay for school fees, uniforms, materials, or transportation.
School fee loans help:
- Students stay in school. Even when students attend free public schools, parents must pay for expenses such as transportation, uniforms, food, and classroom materials. When families cannot cover the costs, children skip a term or drop out.
- Girls go to school. When money is tight, parents will often choose to send their sons to school before their daughters.
- Students improve their learning. When students can't attend school consistently, they have trouble progressing through the curriculum and keeping up with their studies.
School Leadership Academy
Opportunity’s EduFinance School Leadership Academy offers one-day workshops to affordable non-state school owners in our financial institution partners' target markets. The workshops provide guidance on what a school improvement loan is, why it could benefit their school, and how to apply for a loan. The workshops also break down barriers between financial institutions and schools and build a pipeline of bankable schools for partners to offer financing options.
The three key elements of the School Leadership Academy include:
- Training: Building the capacity of school owners to run financially sustainable, quality schools and to access finance
- Financial institution panel discussions: Creating awareness of and demand for partner financial institutions' education finance products
- Networking: Closing the knowledge gap and increasing understanding between schools and financial institutions
Technical Assistance for Financial Institution Partners
Our team offers our financial institution partners technical assistance in the following areas:
Market Research
We conduct a thorough analysis of the scale of the Education Finance market for each of our partner financial institutions. We combine our global expertise in Education Finance with local insight by conducting hundreds of interviews with affordable private school owners and the parents of their students.
Read the EduFinance Market Knowledge Report»
Product Design
Based on the outcomes of our market research, we work with financial institutions to design financial products that meet the needs of the parents and school owners that use them.
Read the EduFinance Product Development Report»
Staff Training
We run training programs for branch managers, loan officers, credit and risk officers, and head office staff to ensure the successful launch, growth, and management of the education lending portfolio. We take a modular approach to staff training so that content and sessions can be customized based on the needs of the individual financial institution.
Read the EduFinance Staff Training Report»
Portfolio Analysis
Our Business Intelligence team provides our partners with a monthly dashboard displaying analysis of their education finance portfolios. Analyses are used to improve the management, risk mitigation, and profitability of our partner financial institutions' portfolios.
Read the EduFinance Portfolio Analysis Report»
Automated Credit Assessment
The EduFinance algorithm is a calculation that uses Education Finance borrower data to predict default rates for school fee loans and school improvement loans and improve lending decisions. Our algorithm models default predictions, which can then be deployed by financial institution staff. The assessment tool is tablet-based so that loan officers can deliver real-time lending decisions.
Read the EduFinance Algorithmic Scoring Tool Report»
Education Quality Products and Programs
Opportunity’s Education Quality (EduQuality) initiative is a holistic three-year school development program that is derived from the "self-improving school system" model. The program, designed as a sustainable model, is delivered through a blended learning model that combines digital, self-access content on tablets for school leaders and teacher mentors with highly interactive in-person training and support.
EduQuality training and support is delivered by our regional Education Specialists, who work with educators in low- and middle-income countries as they strengthen the quality of their affordable non-state schools through improved infrastructure and a better environment for teaching and learning.
Pathways to Excellence
Opportunity’s EduQuality team developed Pathways to Excellence (P2E), a guide for school leaders to diagnose the quality of education at their schools using 18 measurable indicators. Using this self-assessment, school leaders work with stakeholders in their school community to create a development plan to improve their identified areas of greatest need.
Designed in collaboration with international education experts for holistic school improvement, P2E covers topics including school culture, school environment, teaching and learning resources, pedagogy, teacher professional development, teacher retention, school management, child-centered learning, early childhood education, behavior management, and child protection.
Based on the results of their self-assessment, leaders are encouraged to target two to five areas for improvement each year, using action points and support resources outlined in P2E. Ultimately, EduQuality empowers school leaders to continue building their strategic planning skills for school improvement, institutionalizing an iterative improvement process that can be sustained beyond the three-year program.
School Clusters
Most affordable non-state schools are run by sole proprietors that operate without the benefits of a network of peers for mutual collaboration and learning.
To address this gap, Opportunity International invites schools to participate in school clusters—small networks of local, affordable non-state schools that work as a group to share common challenges, generate solutions, and develop best practices. Each cluster is supported by a local Education Specialist who provides additional training and support.
Professional Development for Educators
In addition to school clusters and our Pathways to Excellence guide, Opportunity offers professional development to partner schools.
School Leadership Professional Development
Affordable private schools are established by entrepreneurs with a variety of education backgrounds—from business to teaching. Because of these varied backgrounds, school owners often note that they do not have all the skills they need to be successful proprietors. As part of the EduQuality program, senior school leaders are offered professional development training with a focus on instructional leadership and management best practices.
The EduQuality team offers two-day workshops several times per year, covering topics that are most relevant to school leaders, including business and financial management, school marketing, teacher retention, and child protection. This training helps school owners improve their schools, both as businesses and places of learning.
Teacher Mentor Professional Development
Teachers in affordable private schools often have a wide range of educational backgrounds, and many have had limited access to formalized teacher training or ongoing professional development. EduQuality is identifying and equipping teachers to become mentors for their peers through professional development sessions, classroom observations and feedback, and ongoing coaching methods. The team uses a data-driven approach, combining in-person coaching and digital content to help teachers work toward a set of recognized professional standards, build their confidence, and develop their careers.
EduQuality Phase II
To sustain the impact achieved in phase I of the three-year program, EduQuality is implementing one additional year of programming termed the ‘transition year’ or phase II of the EduQuality program. In this phase, schools that have completed the first three years will continue to implement the core EduQuality interventions independently, with reduced involvement from Education Specialists. Read more about the objectives of EduQuality phase II here.
EduQuality: Early Childhood Care and Education
Children who get quality early childhood care and education before age five perform better throughout their schooling than those who don’t.
Recognizing the opportunity for greater impact, the EduQuality program is currently piloting an early childhood program for schools and daycare centers offering early childhood/pre-primary classes.
Innovation
We’ve been innovating with teachers, school leaders, and parents since the launch of our education work in 2012. Hearing the challenges of our families, we have created innovative solutions in education financial products as well as unique ways to improve education quality through mentorship and local support.
Digital innovation enables teachers and school leaders to access professional development tools through tablets. With input from our teachers and school proprietors, we are testing generative AI solutions that would remove some of their obstacles, like a virtual “school assistant” that helps leaders to build and implement school improvement plans, and a similar solution for teachers that makes it easy for them to create custom curricula for their students—both tools ultimately aimed at increasing student success and retaining engaged and informed educators. Thanks to their feedback, we continue to innovate designs that tackle specific challenges like low connectivity, lack of access to data, and modes of interaction like voice recognition and photos as well as text.
Data, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Business Intelligence
EduFinance’s monitoring, learning, and evaluation team harnesses the power of data to drive better service delivery to financial institutions, schools, parents, and donors. The team captures and monitors data and reports sent from financial institutions, schools, our own staff, and third parties. By organizing these data into databases and through rigorous analysis and monitoring results, we are able to efficiently identify key areas of success, points for improvement, and new ideas. We share our deep knowledge and best practices with partners across the sector, working to build capacity and put more children into better schools.
Past Partnerships and Projects
Prior to the termination of USAID contracts in February 2025, EduFinance partnered with USAID Catalyze in the DRC, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia, and Latin America. Project Catalyze enabled us to:
- Increase loans and technical support to low-cost, non-state schools
- Improve learning outcomes for children living in poverty
- Tap public-private partnerships to improve the quality of rural schools
Our Impact
When students stay in school, communities change. Our EduFinance program connects schools with the capital to grow and parents with the resources to keep their children enrolled — so more children in low- and middle-income countries can access a quality education.