Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much Government overseas development assistance expenditure is spent directly or indirectly on low-fee, for profit private schools in (a) Nigeria, (b) Pakistan, (c) Kenya and (d) Uganda.

Our absolute priority is to ensure children in the world’s poorest countries get the education they deserve, regardless of whether the school is public or private. When state provision is not delivering for the poorest, we work with low-cost privately run schools to provide an education to children who would otherwise get none. DFID has made direct investments in low-fee schools in Nigeria, Kenya and Pakistan. In Nigeria, we have spent £7.6m since 2013, 4,000 students are enrolled in 17 new schools in deprived areas of Lagos, with ongoing work to improve the quality standards of education provided to 1.8 million primary students in private schools. In Kenya we have spent £2.4m since 2014. We paid for 20,000 children to go to private schools in deprived urban areas where there is very limited state provision.

In Pakistan we have spent £28m since 2012, contributed to enrolling 1.7 million children in Punjab and 16,000 children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. In addition, the UK’s development finance institution, CDC, invested $7.1m in 2014 on low fee private schools, which includes support in Uganda.