James Tooley attend Reform conference at 6 April 2003

James Tooley, Professor of Education, University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
"I think we can safely say that market approaches raise standards in education better than non-market approaches and often at a lower cost. Market approaches are more equitable in extending access to the most disadvantaged in society, better than the non-market approaches. We can definitely say that market approaches enhance choice, diversity and innovation better than non-market approaches."
Speech, James Tooley, A Better Way conference, 7 April 2003

Education: Private bid for state school withdrawn (Reference)

Wednesday, January 27, 1999 Published at 17:35 GMT


The most radical of the private-sector bids to take over a failing state school has been withdrawn.
The Education Partnership, which had made an application to become the first private sector company to run a state school in Britain, will no longer be seeking the contract to manage Kings' Manor school in Guildford, Surrey.
The company is believed to have withdrawn its bid because the proposed contract did not give the private company enough of a free hand in the management of the school.
In particular there seemed to be an objection to the governing body remaining the decision-makers in the school, with the contractor taking the role of adviser rather than manager.
"We would want to be in a situation where we would be held accountable - and you can't be held accountable unless you are in control," said the Education Partnership's Chairman, James Tooley.
Last year Surrey County Council invited applications from private companies wanting to take over Kings' Manor, as an alternative to closing a school that had failed an inspection and was unable to attract sufficient numbers of pupils.
Prominent among the shortlisted applicants was the Education Partnership, which applied with the involvement of the Edison Project, a controversial company which runs state schools for profit in the United States.
Surrey council will announce the successful application next month, choosing from the remaining three shortlisted bids - Nord Anglia, the Centre for British Teachers and Kingshurst City Technology College.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/264180.stm

James Tooley

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

James Tooley has long been a favourite author of mine. Professor of Education Policy at the University of Newcastle, he is a delightful fellow who does a lot of good and is not embarassed to talk sense. His thought-experiment, Education without the State, and the later book, Reclaiming Education, are both well worth a read and a large number of his essays and papers can be found at his website which is HERE.I'm prompted to mention James because of THIS ARTICLE in yesterday's Times. It's this sort of thing:
My recent research has shown that between 65 and 75 per cent of children in the poorest slums in Africa and India are now in private schools. These schools charge low fees, perhaps a couple of pounds per month. They are run by proprietors who are not heartless businessmen, but who provide free places to orphans and those with widowed mothers. When they tested large random samples of children, my teams found that these schools outperform the government alternative. And they do it with teachers paid a fraction of the unionised rates.
Unions here would be up in arms about this. Touchingly, the first concern of many delegates at the conferences is that private enterprise would cut teachers’ pay or make them work longer hours. But if in the free market, schools can find dedicated champions of children’s learning willing to work longer hours, or be flexible on their pay and conditions, then what is wrong with that, if it benefits children? In Africa and India the market has set its own pay and conditions. Even though teachers in private schools are paid less than their government counterparts, and work longer hours, they have higher standards because they know they are accountable to parents. Poor performance could lose them their jobs; in state schools, the unions make sure that nobody can be sacked.
Last week I was in a deprived fishing village in Ghana that boasts six flourishing private schools only yards from the state school. A fisherman with an understanding of economics that would put union officials to shame, who had moved his daughter from state to private school, told me that the private school proprietor needed to satisfy parents like him, otherwise he would go out of business. “That’s why the teachers turn up and teach,” he told me, “because they are closely supervised.” His wife, busy smoking fish for sale in the market, concurred. “In the state school, our daughter learnt nothing. Now she’s back on track.”

posted by DavidF at 15:23

Low-cost schools in poor nations seek investors

September 18, 2006

Low-cost schools in poor nations seek investors
James Tooley writes in the Financial Times:
Poor parents are abandoning public schools en-masse, to send their children to “budget” private schools that charge low fees – perhaps one or two dollars per month, affordable even to parents on poverty-line wages. In the shanty towns of Lagos, Nigeria, for example, or the poor, rural areas surrounding Accra, capital of Ghana, or the slums of Hyderabad, India, the majority of schoolchildren – between 64 and 75 per cent – are enrolled in private schools. In impoverished districts in south India, half of all schoolchildren are privately enrolled. Even in remote areas of China, huge numbers of private schools exist off the official radar.
So why the preference for private schools?
My recent research has shown that private schools for the poor are superior to government schools – teachers were much more likely to be teaching when we called unannounced in their classrooms. Private schools were, in general, better equipped with drinking water and toilets. Testing about 24,000 children we found academic achievement was much higher in private than government schools. All of this was accomplished for a fraction of the per-pupil teacher cost.
...They do not want government schools, where teachers do not turn up or, if they do, they do not teach. They want private schools, where teachers are accountable to them through the school principal. Extending access to these schools can be easily effected through vouchers aimed at those, such as Amaretch, whose parents cannot afford a private school.
And what are the bennefits and potential of a for-profit approach?
Because these private schools for the poor are generally businesses, not charities, a creative new frontier for investors is opened up to help improve the quality of education, too. To help school proprietors improve their infrastructure, the opportunity is there for microfinance companies to get involved. We set up two pilot loan schemes, in Hyderabad and Lagos, offering loans of $500-$2,000, at commercial interest rates, to help school entrepreneurs build latrines, refurbish classrooms or buy land. The schools, not having formal property rights or operating semi-legally, were hungry for this kind of finance.
Investors can help improve the quality of learning, too. Aid agencies have thrown billions at trying to get schools to improve their curriculums or teaching. These interventions are not sustainable and fade away as soon as the donor-funded experts move on… However, private schools are operating in intensely competitive markets. They are hungry, too, for innovation if it can be shown to improve standards, to increase market share. Investors can back research and development to find out what works to improve educational outcomes in these schools, then partner with entrepreneurs to ensure that successful methods are brought to market. The problems of sustainability and scalability that so bedevil any aid intervention are solved
…Entrepreneurs who have created private schools serving the poor are eager for investment; they are waiting for the investors who can assist them in pursuing their central role in providing quality “education for all”.
Tooley is probably the leading specialist in private participation in private education in developing countries. This article is an excerpt from his longer essay that won the first IFC-FT Essay Competition on the role of the private sector in development. For more, see the E.G West Center and his personal homepage. Also see an earlier posts on public vs. private education in China.
Update: See this FastCompany debate asking whether for-profit companies should run public schools. And Derek Newberry has more comment on Tooley's essay.
Update: See all of the IFC-FT essay winners.

Low-cost schools in poor nations seek investors

September 18, 2006

Low-cost schools in poor nations seek investors
James Tooley writes in the Financial Times:
Poor parents are abandoning public schools en-masse, to send their children to “budget” private schools that charge low fees – perhaps one or two dollars per month, affordable even to parents on poverty-line wages. In the shanty towns of Lagos, Nigeria, for example, or the poor, rural areas surrounding Accra, capital of Ghana, or the slums of Hyderabad, India, the majority of schoolchildren – between 64 and 75 per cent – are enrolled in private schools. In impoverished districts in south India, half of all schoolchildren are privately enrolled. Even in remote areas of China, huge numbers of private schools exist off the official radar.
So why the preference for private schools?
My recent research has shown that private schools for the poor are superior to government schools – teachers were much more likely to be teaching when we called unannounced in their classrooms. Private schools were, in general, better equipped with drinking water and toilets. Testing about 24,000 children we found academic achievement was much higher in private than government schools. All of this was accomplished for a fraction of the per-pupil teacher cost.
...They do not want government schools, where teachers do not turn up or, if they do, they do not teach. They want private schools, where teachers are accountable to them through the school principal. Extending access to these schools can be easily effected through vouchers aimed at those, such as Amaretch, whose parents cannot afford a private school.
And what are the bennefits and potential of a for-profit approach?
Because these private schools for the poor are generally businesses, not charities, a creative new frontier for investors is opened up to help improve the quality of education, too. To help school proprietors improve their infrastructure, the opportunity is there for microfinance companies to get involved. We set up two pilot loan schemes, in Hyderabad and Lagos, offering loans of $500-$2,000, at commercial interest rates, to help school entrepreneurs build latrines, refurbish classrooms or buy land. The schools, not having formal property rights or operating semi-legally, were hungry for this kind of finance.
Investors can help improve the quality of learning, too. Aid agencies have thrown billions at trying to get schools to improve their curriculums or teaching. These interventions are not sustainable and fade away as soon as the donor-funded experts move on… However, private schools are operating in intensely competitive markets. They are hungry, too, for innovation if it can be shown to improve standards, to increase market share. Investors can back research and development to find out what works to improve educational outcomes in these schools, then partner with entrepreneurs to ensure that successful methods are brought to market. The problems of sustainability and scalability that so bedevil any aid intervention are solved
…Entrepreneurs who have created private schools serving the poor are eager for investment; they are waiting for the investors who can assist them in pursuing their central role in providing quality “education for all”.
Tooley is probably the leading specialist in private participation in private education in developing countries. This article is an excerpt from his longer essay that won the first IFC-FT Essay Competition on the role of the private sector in development. For more, see the E.G West Center and his personal homepage. Also see an earlier posts on public vs. private education in China.
Update: See this FastCompany debate asking whether for-profit companies should run public schools. And Derek Newberry has more comment on Tooley's essay.
Update: See all of the IFC-FT essay winners.

Students in the developing countries

Private schools as development aid?

Sunday, February 11, 2007


The Atlantic has a fascinating article about the prevelance and quality of private schools in the third world. It turns out that in many third world countries, private schools have popped up to serve the poorest of the poor, at rates as low as 10 cents a day. The quality of the education is superior to that of the public schools, despite the fact that often the government tries to hinder their activities.And guess what: the international aid community doesn't want to hear this. They persist in pushing the existing public school systems even when they are demonstrable failures. In fact, in many countries the teachers get their jobs as a patronage position, and often even don't bother to show up.Imagine that! The heroic, well-intentioned international aid community cares more about pouring money into the hands of the elite establishment than actually helping the poorest of the poor.Interested? Dr James Tooley did the research and has started an institute to help the proliferation of private education alternatives for the poorest people in the world.Of course Tooley isn't getting government money. Given how poisonous it has proven to be, thank God!
posted by David at 2/11/2007

The Ten-Cent Solution

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

"Cheap private schools are educating poor children across the developing world—but without much encouragement from the international aid establishment."Clive Crook in The Atlantic writes about the research and experiences of James Tooley covered earlier.He poses the question, why have we not heard about this idea? :
This is not because his work is dull or unimportant. His findings are surprising, and they bear directly and profoundly on the relief of extreme poverty all over the world. (Name me a more important issue than that.) The reason you haven’t heard of James Tooley is that his work is something of an embarrassment to the official aid and development industry. He has demonstrated something that many development professionals would rather not know—and would prefer that you not know, either...On the whole, dime-a-day for-profit schools are doing a better job of teaching the poorest children than the far more expensive state schools. In many localities, private schools operate alongside a free, government-run alternative. Many parents, poor as they may be, have chosen to reject it and to pay perhaps a tenth of their meager incomes to educate their children privately. They would hardly do that unless they expected better results.Better results are what they get. After comparing test scores for literacy and basic math, Tooley has shown that pupils in private schools do better than their state-school equivalents—at between a half and a quarter of the per-pupil teacher cost. In some places, such as Gansu, China, the researchers found that private schools serving the poor had worse facilities than comparable state schools; in Hyderabad, they were better equipped (with blackboards, desks, toilets, drinking water, and so on). Regardless, the tests so far show that private-school students do better across the board.

via NextBillion
posted by Emeka Okafor @ 8:50 AM

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GI advisor aids African school expansion

Written by Alex Singleton
Thursday, 15 February 2007
Prof. James Tooley, a member of the Globalisation Institute's academic advisory council, is to help invest $100m in developing country schools, the Financial Times reports today. His work on low-cost private schools for the world's poorest has attracted the attention of the charitable arm of the Singapore-based investment firm Orient Global. As the FT says:
His research projects in China, Ghana and Kenya have shown how private schools in the developing world can provide a better education than inefficient state-run schools, despite often charging just a couple of dollars in monthly fees....Prof Tooley said: "Our research already demonstrates that some of the poorest people in the global village are enlisting the support not of their governments or international agencies but of entrepreneurs, to help educate their children and improve their lives."In some of the most disadvantaged places on earth . . there is an extraordinary blossoming of private education."For further information on James Tooley's work, visit the website of the E G West Centre at Newcastle University which he directs.

Third World Countries Successful with Inexpensive PRivate Education

Thursday February 15th 2007, 3:06 pm

I read the my new issue of The Atlantic Monthly (March, 2007 http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200703/crook-schools) about James Tooley (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/egwest/tooley.html) who has uncovered a REMARKABLE and, since I’ve not read about it before, pretty unreported finding that kids in Third World Countries receive BETTER education when it’s private. And Cheap!
By the way, you have GOT to see Tooley’s web site that charts the amazing progress that simple, private schools are providing in countries that the UNESCO and other NGO’s have NOT been funding. And they are better!!!
Great read from a British Professor of Education on the merits of childhood education amongst (pardon my british) the poor!!!

Free Education Isn't Always Enough

But it's a start.When I was in Mexico last month, I saw lots of kids that were not in school on weekdays. I asked a local why these kids aren't in school and was told that although Mexico has good universal public education, these kids can't afford to lose the few pesos they can make selling oranges and handkerchiefs to tourists.Even when education is free, many kids simply can't afford to go to school. Their income may be essential to the family, frequently they have to care for younger siblings, sometimes they are just trying to stay alive, not to mention there are often additional expenses (such as books, transportation, and uniforms) incurred even at public school.
Nearly 300 000 children in South Africa can't go to school because they don't have wheelchairs, hearing aids, crutches or even spectacles to make their lives easier. (more)It is clear that the logical solution to this problem is to help these children with their particular needs. A Right-wing think tank's solution, however, would be to replace public education with private education, and hope that private charity can help send the poor kids to school. The Fraser Institute believes because universal free public education is not providing the kind of results we'd like to see, it is a failure of the concept of public education.
This week, the United Nations 2005 World Summit in New York will address the lack of access to education for the lowest-income families around the globe. Its admirable goal is to achieve “universal primary education by 2015,” through increased international funding and government administration. The educational plight of the world’s poor seems inevitably to result in calls for such responses.Though the big stick* of government intervention seems like a powerful tool for good, in the field of education its results have been disappointing and suggest that government interference in education is part of the problem, not the solution.Evidence suggests that free, state-run education has not resulted in anywhere near the universal educational outcomes its advocates have promised. In many parts of the Western world, that failure is still evident after more than a century of concentrated effort, in Africa after many billions of dollars in international aid grants. These are humanitarian tragedies indeed and we must consider seriously the reasons for the failure.Does the educational failure of the world’s poor reflect the impossibility of achieving lofty educational goals, or does it reflect misguided reliance on public financing and provision? Increasingly, the evidence suggests not that poor families are impossible to educate, but that free, state-run schools may not be the best way to deliver education to them.Groundbreaking research by the University of Newcastle’s Dr. James Tooley in the slums of Africa, India and China reveals that a perhaps majority of students not enrolled in public schools in these countries are being educated in unregistered private schools, paid for by their parents.Tooley’s research indicates significantly higher achievement among private-school students even after controlling for factors such as parental education and income. His fieldwork findings also show that when visited unannounced, fewer public-school teachers were engaged in teaching activities than their private-school counterparts were.A recent BBC documentary provided vivid anecdotal evidence of this when it showed footage of teachers sleeping in African public-school classrooms and chatting on their cell phones, while students were left to their own devices.Though governments in the developing world do not recognize the existence or contribution of private schools, their value is fully acknowledged by parents, who make great personal sacrifices to pay the tuition. One parent explains, “If you were offered free fruit in the market, you would know it was rotten. If you want good fruit, you have to pay for it. The same is true of education.”Here in Canada, private schools are equally unsung heroes of education for our poorest citizens. An OECD report released this week reveals that even after accounting for parental education and income, private-school students in Canada do much better on mathematics tests than their public school counterparts. Statistics Canada tells us that 29 percent, nearly a third of children who attend private schools in Canada, are from families with incomes of less than $50,000. This suggests that many poor parents in Canada also value private education, despite the financial sacrifices it requires of them.In fact, there is reason to believe that private schools may offer lower-income families better value for money than public schools offer taxpayers. Evidence of this comes from Children First: School Choice Trust, a greatly over-subscribed program in Ontario that offers grants to lower-income families. The program pays up to 50 percent of tuition at independent elementary school for 800 children whose household income is less than twice the poverty line. The average household income of Children First families is less than $28,000 while the average tuition of their schools is $4,400, about 56 percent of what is spent per student in the public system.Why are these poor families choosing private schools that will cost them dearly, when public schools are available free of charge? Some want relief from bullying, others religious education, others cite smaller schools with greater academic emphasis and respect for teachers, while yet others help for a special education need. Each family seems to agree with the African parent’s analogy of the free fruit and that educational value offered by private schools is more than worth their financial sacrifices.Chinese officials told Tooley’s research team private schools for the poor were “logically impossible.” Like those officials, government bureaucrats* will continue to deny the existence and potential of educational entrepreneurs, despite the cost of their denial to those poor families they purport to serve. And while they do, the admirable UN targets for universal education will prove continually elusive.My Emphasis * Note the bogeymen: "big stick of government intervention", "government bureaucrats". Can't you just HEAR the venom dripping from their mouths?What planet are they on? The FI's solution would make sense only in a world in which poverty means not being able to afford both education and an iPod. Yes I'm still annoyed about this.Related
Labels: children, development, education, mexico, poverty, south africa
posted by Red Jenny at 6:42 PM

Promising education

James Tooley, winner of the first IFC-FT "business and development" essay competition now has another string to his bow. This past week the philanthropic arm of Orient Global, said that it had asked Prof Tooley to act as special adviser on how to invest $100m in private schools for the very poor in developing countries.
Writes the FT in an editorial over the weekend:
Without literacy and numeracy, people are doomed to a life of poverty. Development experts know that. So, too, do parents. Disgusted by corrupt and incompetent public sector provision, many of the world's poorest people are turning to private sector alternatives. This is a fascinating development, on which the world should now build. …
[H]uge potential…. exists for further development of this dynamic sector. Investment, [Tooley] suggests, could go into improved infrastructure, into small-scale research and development, and into the development of branded schools. Brands are a way for business people to establish - and then benefit - from a reputation for quality, including also in the provision of education.
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The School of St Jude, in Arusha, Tanzania, is a great example of a private school that successfully provides free education to children from the poorest families.
Established in 2002 with 3 children, this year is has 850 and plans to grow to 2,500 by 2015. In 2006 it had a budget of AUD$1 million.
This success is due almost entirely to the talent and commitment of Gemma Sisia who started the school and is managing its growth. The school is entirely funded from donations, mostly from Australia.
With this as an example, the $100mill that Prof Tooley will have to invest should be invested in a way that builds support from networks of donors otherwise it won't go far.
Check out the School of St Jude at: www.schoolstjude.blogspot.com, and www.schoolofstjude.co.tz.
Perhaps Prof Tooley could use it as a case study.

Private, Private, Private

Monday, February 19, 2007

I read with interest over the weekend that a Singapore investment fund has decided to invest one hundred million dollars in education programmes in the developing world.Is this another publicity hungry, wealthy, opportunist lurching into the philanthropic space in order to gain a few cheap brownie points, column inches and after dinner gasps of admiration? On the face of it, it appears not. The Orient Global Foundation (OGF) has burst on the scene apparently from nowhere, with a fresh approach and a massive vote of confidence in the work of Professor James Tooley. Professor Tooley is an advocate of Private Education for the poor. He states in his research that in the developing world, state run schools are failing, often badly run, under funded and run down. Realising that education provides a potent pathway out of poverty, many parents in the developing world (China, India, Africa) have reacted by starting their own private schools. With meagre funds (as little as one dollar per month), schools are founded. They are well run, teachers are motivated and they deliver practical results.In working with the Orient Global Foundation, Professor Tooley will have ample opportunity (and funds) to apply his theories in real world circumstances.The author of this blog is a fan of Tooley and will watch with interest how this relationship develops, but for now, BRAVO OGF!Links:Orient Global Foundation: http://www.orientglobal.comJames Tooley: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/egwest/tooley.html

Private Education for the Poor

Published February 20th, 2007 in Development Aid & Civil Society and Society.

Last week, Christine Bowers noted on the FP Passport blog that “the world’s slums are full of private school kids.” On a similar note, the FT reported in January on how India’s poor are spurning state schools, indicating the complete inability of the state to provide a “traditionally core public service.”

Christine brings to the fore a point made previously - that while the world’s academics discuss ad nauseum if education is better provided by the public sector, the poor have already decided with their meager wallets. And James Tooley seems to have shown that. His studies on education among the poor worldwide earned him an FT award in September 2006. His research of rural schools in Pakistan showed that “the learning gap between rich and poor was dwarfed by that between public and private schools.”

Now, James Tooley has been hired by the Orient Global Foundation, which has incidentally been setup by an Asian investment firm, to put his ideas into practice.

If people spend what little income they have on an expensive private education for their children, versus a free public one, then either the private education is better or at least they believe it is. Clearly, the private sector offers them better service and more accountability. This is probably obvious to any economist, given the private sector offers strong financial incentives for performance. By contrast, the public must rely on social and moral incentives - which can be weak or non-existent. The FT, in a scathing Feb 17 op-ed, says:
Education is not, as has long been believed, too important to be left to the private sector. It is, instead, too important to be left to failing public monopolies.

True. But privatizing education solves only part of the problem - the quality and scale. It does not address affordability - ignoring those that are outside the market, because they lack the purchasing power. The reason education is a “traditionally core public service” is not because we believe the state can provide better education. Rather, it is because we believe it can more equitably distribute education and be the provider of last resort. We will still need that, and a mix of private and public approaches (did I hear vouchers?).
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3 Responses to “Private Education for the Poor”
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1 Alex M Thomas Feb 21st, 2007 at 3:04 am
Dweep, But privatizing education solves only part of the problem - the quality and scale. It does not address affordability - ignoring those that are outside the market, because they lack the purchasing power.” Exactly. Affordability is what the Government enterprises tries to do.
Jayati Ghosh has written about the voucher system in the Frontline. Here is the link.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/stories/20070223002410500.htm

Private Schools for the Poor - Prof. James Tooley

Private Schools for the Poor - Prof. James Tooley

Private Schools for the Poor - Prof. James Tooley

Private Schools for the Poor - Prof. James Tooley

Project Dissemination in Beijing, China

Prof. James Tooley, (Director of E.G. West Centre) disseminated his research findings in the remote and impoverished areas at SOHO hotel, Beijing. He mentioned that his research team found 593 private schools in Gansu province. Those schools are all located in the villages, charging a fraction of tuitions and serving for the local communities. Those schools plays an important and positive role in helping China achieve Universal Compulsory Education.

Prof. James Tooley meeting with Sir John Templeton in the Bahamas

The John Templeton Foundation (US) has been supporting the E.G. West Centre's work on private schools for the poor in Asia and Africa. Professor James Tooley meeting with Sir John Templeton at Lyford Cay in the Bahamas recently to present his latest research findings in the developing countries, including China, India, Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria.

Does Private Education Work for the Poor?

Thursday, September 8, 2005F. A. Hayek Auditorium Cato Institute1000 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.Washington, D.C.

September's United Nations summit in New York will assess progress toward the goal of achieving universal basic education by 2015. Many people argue that the only way for children in poor countries to receive a basic education is through more international aid for public schools. That view, however, ignores the crucial role that private education can play, and is already playing, in serving the educational needs of the poor. As surprising as it may be, private schools today serve some of the poorest people on the planet.

This conference includes the screening of a documentary film commissioned by BBC World exploring private schools in one of the poorest slums in Africa—Makoko in Lagos, Nigeria. The film, based on the research of Professor James Tooley, shows how 75 percent of the poorest children attend private schools that are better and cheaper to run than their public school counter-parts. Interviews with parents show clearly why they prefer private schools. Footage shot in the public schools and interviews with officials in charge reinforce the reasons for that preference.Following the screening, Tooley will present the findings of a two-year global study of private schools for the poor. This will be followed by a panel discussion featuring educational entrepreneurs who run private schools for the poor in sub-Saharan Africa and India.

• Watch the Event in Real Video (1st Segment)
• Watch the Event in Real Video (2nd Segment)
• Watch the Event in Real Video (3rd Segment)

The Education Trust - E.G. West Scholarships

The Educare Trust is a non-profit agency registered under the Indian Trust Act, 1882. It was formed in 2002 by Professor James Tooley of the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, and other members associated with private unaided schools in India. The mission of the scholarship fund is to help economically deprived children in rural and urban India to pursue education in private unaided schools. More than 300 children are currently benefiting from the support of the Educare Trust, which is seeking to expand its mission to many more families.

Why help the poor to attend private unaided schools?

A great deal of research now shows that importance of the private unaided sector in meeting the educational needs of the poor, in India, and other developing countries. One of the major reasons is the problem of teacher absenteeism and low level of teaching activity in government schools. The influential “Probe Report” found that in only 53% of government schools in four Indian states was there any teaching going on at all! Indeed, in the government schools for low-income families, it reported that ‘generally, teaching activity has been reduced to a minimum, in terms of both time and effort – it has become a way of life in the profession’. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen also reported a high incidence of teacher absenteeism in government schools in research carried out by the Pratichi Trust in West Bengal. And the Oxfam Education Report gives teacher absenteeism in government schools as a major reason why poor households choose to send their children to the private alternative.

Private unaided schools in India

Our research has shown a thriving private unaided sector in India. Many schools charge fees in the range Rs. 50/- to Rs. 150/- ($1 to $3), per month, serving very low income families. Significantly, we found that many schools are themselves providing free and concessionary places for the poorest families – on average 15% of all places, taking 7% of total revenue. By funding scholarships through the Educare Trust, we can not only help the poorest of the poor, but also relive this burden from the schools, helping them to invest in improved facilities.

Why support the E. G. West Scholarships?

The Educare Trust is the only foundation committed to helping the poor to achieve self-reliance through accessing private education. Professor E. G. West was a renowned British educationalist, who conducted seminal research on private education as a vehicle from helping the poor to help themselves, in Britain, the USA and developing countries. The Scholarships are named in memory of his enduring influence.

Parents speak for themselves

“The Scholarships have helped my children attain their education without financial hindrance”, says Padma, mother of Latha and Anitha, receiving scholarships for 3rd and 4th standard respectively. Padma works as a servant maid, earning only Rs. 400/- ($8.80) per month. Her husband earns about Rs. 50/- per day ($1.10), but is an alcoholic and spends most of his earnings on drink. The family reside in a slum area, close to the schools, in a single room.
“The Scholarships reduce the burden from my shoulder… My family is grateful to the Educare Trust for funding my child’s education”, says Varalaxmi, mother of Girisha, a 10th Standard student. Both Varalaxmi and her husband are illiterate, but want the best for their children. She is a housewife, and her husband an unemployed carpenter.

This scholarship helps us a lot. Thanks to the donor”, says Md. Abdul Karim Khan,who works in a binding shop, earning about Rs. 2,000 ($45) per month. He pays school fees for five of his children, and the scholarship is paid for his youngest daughter, Vahida, who studies in 3rd Standard.

"This Scholarship is a very good scheme for people like us”, says Saleem, father of five girls. He wants to educate all of his daughters, to give them chances that he and his wife did not have. He works as a watchman at a Maternity Nursing Home, which provides him with the single room in which he lives with all his family.

How to donate?

$36 will fund one child's scholarship for a whole year! That's $3 per month!

To make donations, please send cheques payable to The Educare Trust to:

Professor James Tooley,
E.G. West Centre,
School of Education
University of Newcastle
Newcastle, NE2 2PJ

Prof. James Tooley's Photo

The Centre's Director is James Tooley, PhD, Professor of Education Policy at the University of Newcastle. Professor Tooley directed the global study of investment opportunities for private education in developing countries for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - the private finance arm of the World Bank - which led to his publication The Global Education Industry, (IEA, 1999), now in its 2nd edition. This study explored the private education market and the regulatory and investment climate in a dozen countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, together with detailed case studies of 20 private education companies or institutions. Professor Tooley is currently directing an international research programme examining the role of private schools serving low income families in Asia and Africa and funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Research is currently on going in India, China, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana. Professor Tooley has also done considerable consultancy work for the IFC, World Bank (IBRD), UN, UNESCO, and Asian Development Bank Institute on private education in developing countries. He is a frequent keynote speaker at international conferences on the global education industry.

HOW CHEAP PRIVATE SCHOOLS ARE EDUCATING THE CHILDREN OF THE POOR IN NIGERIA - AND WHY SOEM BRITISH ACADEMICS CANNOT ACCEPT THIS?

Attention: This article was originally posted by Harry Phibbs (Jan. 9th, 2006) in the webblog: http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/000591.php.

Harry Phibbs is impressed with the research of Prof. James Tooley which shows how cheap private schools are educating the children of the poor in Nigeria. Prof. Tooley's work, however, remains unpopular with some academics.

Ronald Reagan liked to quip that economists would say:

that looks fine in practice but how will it work in theory.

I was reminded of this while watching School's Out, about the emergence of private schools for the poor in Nigeria. This is a pretty remarkable phenomenon.

Professor Keith Lewin when confronted with the evidence of what was happening simply refused to accept it because his theoretical understanding was that it could not be. Private schools are for the rich not the poor, is Lewin's mindset.

Unfortunately the United Nations seem to agree with Lewin. They are still blinkered by leftwing ideologues and are trying to persuade the Nigerian Government to scupper these schools. They are interpreting their remit to provide free education as a prohibition on education being offered which isn't free. The UN say that 115 million children are missing out on education. But many are in unregistered private schools. Closing the fee paying schools to force children into state schools might improve the UN statistics but it would not improve the reality.

A research study is under way in Lagos state on the coast of Nigeria, being undertaken by the E. G. West Centre, in conjunction with the Institute of Public Policy Analysis (IPPA), and the University of Ibadan. Its remit is to investigate the nature and the extent of private schools serving low-income families in Nigeria. It is looking at the number of private schools and how they compare with the Government schools.

Tooley's research has attracted the interest of the BBC who devoted a documentary to the subject last year on their BBC World channel. A shorter version of the programme has also been shown on Newsnight. It is to the credit of the BBC that they produced such a film (although it included critics as well as proponents of private schooling.) It is unusual for the BBC to give serious consideration to a free market solution to a problem in the developing world. This may not be conscious bias - rather BBC staff may find it impossible to imagine such a point of view existing.

But for sceptics it is all there on screen. Footage of the private schools certainly shows the buildings are rickety - but so what? Rather more damning is the footage from state schools which showed one teacher interrupting the class to chat on her mobile phone and another teacher sleeping through the lesson. What is most extraordinary is that one must remember this was with the cameras openly filming. The crew didn't sneak in. They had an appointment and were quite open about their plans.

Off camera Tooley's research also gives us an idea of what was discovered when visits were unannounced. His research study found that only in about 53 per cent of the state schools visited unannounced in Lagos State was there any "teaching activity" going on. In fully 33 per cent the head teacher was absent. These are quite staggering findings.

Often they would find that the lack of any teaching was combined with impressive facilities. There would certainly be good infrastructure - proper building in good repair. There would be modern teaching aids and a good pupil teacher ratio. Just no actual teaching would be taking place.

Tooley has written about the subject for the Financial Times asking:

Isn't private school only about the elites and middle class? Actually no. In the urban slums and villages in developing countries, increasing number of poor parents are sending their children to private schools - with fees of $2 per month or less, run by educational entrepreneurs who want to serve their community as well as make some money.Tooley makes clear that very cheap private schools aren't just a novelty for Nigeria: My research has found such schools in battle scarred buildings in Somaliland, in the shanty towns built on stilts above the Lagos Lagoons in Nigeria, scattered among the tin and cardboard huts of Africa's largest slum, Kibera, Kenya, in the crowded slums and villages across India and even in remote Himalayan regions of China.Those of us who dream of the availability of cheap, widespread private schooling in Britain and wonder if it could be practical could not fail to be inspired by the determination of even the very poor to get the best they can for their children even if they have to pay for it. These are independent schools which have achieved better results than the state schools not because they have higher budgets, or even equivalent budgets.

Typically their budgets are a small fraction of those enjoyed by the state schools. If parent power can triumph in the shanty towns of Nigeria, it can surely triumph in Liverpool, Glasgow, Newcastle and Hackney.