Resource 3: INCOME GENERATION AT THE SAN FRANCISCO AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL, Paraguay

 Background information / subject knowledge for teacher

The San Francisco Agricultural School (SFAS) in Paraguay is a private co-ed senior high school run by the Fundación Paraguaya, a leading local NGO. Its 120 pupils aged between 16 and 18 live on-site and follow a three year course leading up to the nationally approved high school diploma in agriculture.

What is more interesting about this school is the substantial amount of income that it generates from its own activities – currently covering over 50% of total school costs – and how these activities are used to increase the relevancy of learning within the school.

School Run Enterprise

SFAS’s school run enterprises directly combine income generation with an opportunity for the students to learn and practice both technical and entrepreneurial skills.

A good example of this is the school’s fresh vegetable business. Students’ practice bio-intensive small-scale organic farming in the fields, developing their skills as agriculturalists, and reinforcing theory learned in the classroom.

Each week produce harvested is taken by the students to the local market for sale. Dealing with customers, making sales, and experimenting with presentation, helps students to develop softer, but extremely important entrepreneurial skills.

Records kept by the students of inputs used, yields, and sales, develops a disciplined approach to monitoring their activity, and are used in lessons to illustrate the economics of the vegetable business.

While students are intimately involved in all aspects, ultimately responsibility for the profitability of this unit falls to the Head of Agricultural Production, a qualified agronomist and teacher.

Within the constraints of meeting curricular needs, it is this accountability that ensures that the focus of teaching lies on techniques and products that will generate the most income for the school, and for this same reason are most relevant for the students.

Student Led Enterprise

As part of its mission to promote entrepreneurship SFAS has supported the establishment of a number of student led enterprises within the school.

A group of students form their own ‘company’, decide on their product, and assign positions and responsibilities to the group members. The process is mentored from an outside facilitator, normally an experienced business person who is able to offer advice when needed.

All aspects of the business are run by the students, who also share in its profits should it succeed. Its life-span is limited by agreement from the outset.

Opportunities exist for the school to both support these initiatives and to generate income at the same time. Where the school chooses to become a shareholder it benefits from a dividend, as well as a share of the companies assets. For products manufactured using the school’s facilities, and sold via the school’s distribution channels small charges may be made.

Such profit-sharing and charges in reality are designed to increase the realism of the students’ experience. As the primary purpose of these companies is educational they do not generate substantial income for the school.

It is interesting to note that when students are given free-reign in this way they often come up with more creative and successful business ideas than the school’s management. Such companies when they have run their course may even develop into school owned enterprises in certain cases!

Adapted from: ‘Beyond Fees: A Guide to Income Generation in Schools’ Produced by Teach a Man to Fish, Website