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At its simplest a self-sufficient school is one that generates
enough income to cover the costs of providing a quality education
to its students.
A hands on approach
Agricultural vocational schools have long appreciated the
benefits of ‘learning-by-doing’ – no one
ever learnt to drive a tractor from reading a book! Skills
are often best learnt on-the-job, and improve by practise.
Generating income
Where refining skills is aimed at delivering a product of
marketable quality– from honey to maize to milk - the
natural next step is to actually make and sell this product.
Schools rarely have difficulties finding a use for income
generated in this way!
Scaling up
Although it requires a substantial effort to create a demonstration
production environment for teaching purposes, it is often
proportionately not much harder to produce the same product
on a much larger scale.
For products in developing countries where
commercial enterprises often lack the very skills being taught,
scaling up can justifiably result in greater productivity
than the market norm.
Self-Sufficiency
When each activity across a school’s curriculum is taught
in this manner – being effectively run as a profitable
business unit – financial self-sufficiency becomes a
realistic prospect.
Value as a Model
Self-sufficiency is really just a means to an end - to providing
a quality vocational education that opens up prospects for
graduates to earn a decent living, and create jobs for others.
There is another valuable benefit of maintaining
self-sufficiency as a goal – institutional fitness.
Self-sufficient schools are denied the complacency
of institutions which can rely on regular funding irrespective
of performance. Like regular businesses they must adapt, innovate,
and constantly renew themselves just to stand still.
The discipline this requires serves
as an inspiration to students, and ensures of necessity that
the education they receive is focussed on skills from which
they can earn a livelihood.
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