Educational entrepreneurship is on the rise. According to a recent Forbes Magazine article a number of former public school teachers in the United States left their steady teaching positions to launch micro-schools. One might wonder why someone would give up a consistent paycheck with health insurance and retirement benefits for the risk of owning a business. Our experience creating schools can demonstrate why. We are international school educators that left employment situations in large international schools. We believe in the power of smaller, progressive learning organizations to transform professional practice and student school experience. A number of large educational companies are actively buying schools to leverage the benefits of a scaled enterprise. However, we believe a small school concept allows school owners to express their passion for adopting innovative practices,to impact student learning.
Gamut Education believes that students must be the protagonist of their own learning so they can discover their talents and create their own futures. That is a tall order. To explore the possibilities of learning experiences and leverage student potential, schools need to embrace new ways of thinking and doing. In our experience, the best way to get there is through small, agile institutions led by professionals that embrace change and are not afraid to fail forward. The best way to model risk-taking, problem solving and entrepreneurial thinking to students is when the school environment is defined by entrepreneurs.
The World Economic form calls for reimagining education to keep pace with significant global economic and social trends. Education 4.0 calls for a variety of players including investors and educators to collaborate and “unlock transformation” by promoting inclusivity, skills training for jobs arising from the 4th Industrial Revolution and student-centered learning driven by pedagogical and technological innovations. Gamut Education sees itself playing a participatory role in defining future versions of teaching and learning. As we create schools we are focusing on three key investment areas pointed out by the World Economic Forum, the implementation of new assessment mechanisms that empower students to take responsibility for understanding themselves as learners, adoption of new learning technologies to enhance the ability to meet individual student needs, and engaging teaching professionals to challenge prior methodologies and commit to continuous personal and professional growth. We witness entrepreneurs throughout Latin America participating in efforts to improve education.
Education spending significantly increased over the last few decades In Latin America. Spending on education was about 4% of GDP in 2019 (World Bank and IDB). Private enrollment rates increased dramatically from 2004-2014. (Unesco 2015) and there continues to be a growing demand in the private school sector as the quality and equity of government, public-sector programs are variable. Gamut Education identifies small-cap opportunities to join other educators in creating the schools young people need and deserve.
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