| About the Conference
The First International Conference on Financially Self-Sufficient Schools will be held from the 4th to 6th of December 2007 in Paraguay, and will provide a unique forum for the exchange of ideas on “Education That Pays For Itself”.
The conference will bring together up to 100 delegates – including educators, development practitioners, academics, international institutions, & donors – in the first such event dedicated to this rapidly-advancing field which is transforming traditional approaches to education.
This year´s conference theme, “Integrating Entrepreneurship into Agricultural Education” takes as its point of departure the importance of agriculture in sustaining rural life in developing countries and emphasizes the need to integrate training in sound agricultural practices with the teaching of entrepreneurial skills, if agricultural education is to offer a viable route out of rural poverty.
What are Financially Self-Sufficient Schools?
Financially Self-Sufficient Schools use profit-making businesses to teach students practical and business skills in a real-life context and reinvest school-generated income in their facilities and staff.
By adopting such an approach, schools can expand their financial resources which, in turn, will enable them both to improve the quality of education they provide and increase its availability.
Our conference host, the San Francisco Agricultural School in Cerrito, Paraguay, is an inspirational example of a Financially Self-Sufficient School. This school has not only achieved exceptional educational results, but remarkable financial performance as well.
- Within two months of graduation, 100% of the class of 2006 was studying at university, had found good jobs in the modern agricultural sector, was implementing business plans on their family farms, or working as extension agents and transferring their skills to rural communities—a stellar achievement for recent high school graduates from low-income, rural backgrounds in a job market with few opportunities for youth!
- Although the school takes no government money and charges virtually no fees, it covered over 70% of its total operating costs in 2006 and expects to be 100% financially self-sufficient by the end of 2007, thanks to income from the sale of goods & services it produces and provides.
What are the benefits of the conference?
Participants will have an unrivalled opportunity to:
- Learn from the practitioners whose pioneering schools provide inspirational case studies for how Financially Self-Sufficient Schools can transform traditional education
- Showcase their work, inspiring others with their experiences, and contributing to the development of new approaches
- Network with fellow participants and develop new collaborative relationships
Simultaneous interpretation will offer a rare chance for participants from English- and Spanish-speaking countries to gain an insight into each other’s work.
At this ground-breaking event, participants will play an important role in building a shared understanding of how schools can achieve financial self-sufficiency through integrating education and entrepreneurship, as well in determining the future direction for such “Entrepreneurial Schools” approaches in the years to come.
The conference will focus on the following topics:
1. Financially Self-Sufficient Schools: Rewarding Examples
- Innovative institutional models
- Strategies for generating school income
- Balancing educational and financial goals
- Re-inventing schools as social enterprises
- Role of Incentives
2. Transforming Curricula: Integrating Agricultural and Entrepreneurial Education
- Teaching entrepreneurship for agriculture
- Integrating entrepreneurship into traditional curricula
- Balancing classroom and practical learning
- Recruiting and training teachers
- The teacher as social entrepreneur
3. Reaching Out: Meeting Needs and Achieving Impact
- Linking education to real work and market situations
- Working with public and private sectors
- Impact of entrepreneurship education on employment creation
- Broadening the benefits of Financially Self-Sufficient Schools to local communities
- Building public support for the Entrepreneurial School concept
Who should attend the conference?
Anyone who is interested in how entrepreneurship can be used to improve the quality and availability of education is welcome to attend. We especially encourage attendance by:
- Principals, heads and leaders of educational institutions of all levels and sectors
- Non-government organizations and associations working in education
- Multi-lateral and national development agencies
- International, national and state education system policy-makers
- Business and industry employer and training organizations
- Foundations, philanthropists and social investors with an interest in education
- Teachers, educators and trainers
- Researchers in education
- Community and indigenous organizations, both formal and non-formal
Find out how it can work, why it works, and how you can bring these ideas and lessons learned into your own work.
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