James Tooley and Pauline Dixon, Centre for British Teachers
May 2003
Newcastle professor James Tooley has been doing fascinating and important work in examining one of the least-understood sector of education in the world: low-cost private schools serving very poor children in third-world countries. [For his earlier report on the Philippines, see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=36#520.] His latest report is based on field research in the slums of Hyderabad, India, a big city in which, amazingly, some, 61 percent of low-income students attend private schools. This is due to the widespread failure of government schools to provide a decent education and has, predictably, caused an explosion in the number of private schools despite official attitudes that range from disinterested neglect to overt hostility toward private education, as well as onerous government regulations. Tooley says that many of these schools are demonstrating remarkable success in educating students at an amazingly low cost--with essentially no public subsidy and with tuitions set at levels that all but the very poorest can afford. As for the stifling government regulations, school operators have found a very Indian solution: bribing officials to wink at them. You can find this very interesting report at http://www.cfbt.com/cfbt/web.nsf/97cae391....../FinalPipe.pdf.