TEACHING unions will release a damning report today into Uganda’s chain of private shack schools that is backed by software and dotcom billionaires.

Education International will launch the exposé of Bridge International Academies (BIA) in Ugandan capital Kampala on World Teachers’ Day.

BIA is taking the government to court over Education Minister Janet Museveni’s decision, temporarily suspended by a judge, to close its 63 schools in the country.

Ms Museveni gave the order after inspections revealed poor sanitation at the schools was putting the health of BIA’s 12,000 fee-paying pupils at risk, while the firm was employing unqualified teachers and not following the national curriculum.

Education International general secretary Fred van Leeuwen called on Uganda to “remain steadfast in demanding that Bridge International Academies operates in accordance with Ugandan legislative and regulatory requirements.

“Every child deserves to be taught by a qualified teacher delivering an engaging curriculum in safe schools conducive to good teaching and learning.”

Report co-author Curtis Riep, arrested in Uganda at BIA’s request in May, will not be at the launch after being advised not to attend for “security reasons.”

The report, provided to the Morning Star in advance, reveals that 80 to 90 per cent of BIA’s teachers are unqualified and paid extrememly low wages.

Lessons are held in the rough corrugated-iron shack schools with chicken-wire windows dubbed “chicken coops for kids” by the firm’s own managers. BIA delivers its “academy-in-a-box” with pre-programmed curricula transferred to tablet e-readers — “teacher-computers.”

Every teaching activity is pre-set and scripted, including instructing teachers when to “pause” when to “circulate for 30 seconds,” when to “rub the board” and when to tell pupils to “close your textbooks.”

While sold as affordable good-quality private education, sending one child to a BIA school for a year costs a quarter of average household income, and school dropout rates range from 10 to 60 per cent.

BIA is bankrolled by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, fellow billionaires Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Pierre Omidyar of Ebay — and the British government’s Department for International Development.

In addition to Ugandan, Kenyan and Indian operations, the firm won a Liberian government tender to provide education from last month.