James Tooley: How the World’s Poor Get a Good Education from Markets (podcast)
James Tooley is currently in the US and recently visited the Heartland Institute to discuss and promote his work on private schools for the poor in developing countries. You can listen to his podcast here: James Tooley: How the World’s Poor Get a Good Education from Markets.
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The Bottom Line – The Business of Education
Education and how to make a profit from it is the focus for Evan and his three guests this week – each of them business leaders in the learning sector. From low-cost private schools in Ghana to no-frills law courses and a University of Liverpool campus in China, our guests …
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School in the Cloud by Sugata Mitra wins $1 million TED Prize!!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations to Sugata Mitra from everyone at the E.G. West Centre on winning the 2013 TED Prize. Onwards and upwards! Last month, James Tooley was also invited to be a member of the TED Prize Advisory Council, which will work with and advise Sugata over the next three years. Hats …
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The Relative Quality of Private and Public Schools for Low-income Families Living in Slums of Nairobi, Kenya
OXFORD STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE EDUCATION Low-fee Private Schooling: aggravating equity or mitigating disadvantage? Edited by PRACHI SRIVASTAVA - 2013 paperback 220 pages US$48.00 Low-fee private schooling represents a point of heated debate in the international policy context of Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals. While on the one hand there …
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Inclusive business models in education
In the global education industry there is now increasing talk of ‘inclusive business models’, especially with reference to investment opportunities across the developing world. The concept originates from the international development community, which after half a century, has finally realized that for-profit companies not only serve the rich but also …
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New book by Pauline Dixon out soon
“This fine book has a powerful message for policy makers and donors: the quality of schools matters even in poor countries; hence, the poor are abandoning failed state schools and enrolling their kids in low cost private schools. Instead of trying to close them down, the state and donors would …
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Profit in education – not a dirty word
In September 2011, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg declared his support for more diversity and parental choice in education, but rejected the idea of running publicly-funded schools for a profit: “To anyone worried that, by expanding the mix of providers in our education system, we are inching towards inserting the …
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Education for all: a polycentric approach
The current approach adopted by the international development community to guarantee education for all (EFA) across the developing world can best be described as monocentric and one that favours a ‘one size fits all’ optimal solution. This involves expanding the state-controlled and bureaucratic model of education to ensure that all …
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Millennium Development Goals and Schooling for the Poor
The Millennium Development Goals were to be met by 2015. What’s to do once 2015 has been and gone and the goals for universal primary education and equal enrolments among girls and boys have not been met? Well, it looks like the message is, “let’s start all over again and …
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Affordable Learning
Michael Barber interviews Ken Donkoh and James Tooley, October 2012
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A Case Study of Private Schools in Kibera: An Update
This article provides an update on our earlier paper on the introduction by the Kenyan government in 2003 of free primary education (FPE), and its impact on low-fee private schools. First, published papers that have used our contribution as a springboard for discussion are critically reviewed. The argument and supporting …
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Government failure in higher education
As expected, the proposals in the Coalition Agreement concerning universities and further education were typically vague and non-committal. However some significant reforms have been introduced. First, the cap on tuition fees was lifted from £3,000 to £9,000. Second, students attending private universities are now eligible for a state-funded loan of …
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The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid in education
While politicians in the UK continue to argue between themselves about the ethics of the profit motive in education, exciting developments in this sector are already taking place in low income communities across the developing world. While C.K Prahalad did not include an example of budget private schools as a …
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Omega Schools, Ghana
On July 2 2012, Pearson, launched a $15 million Affordable Learning Fund to invest in private companies committed to innovative approaches, sustainable business models and improving learning outcomes for the poorest families in the world. The first investment from the new Fund, is a stake in Omega Schools, a privately …
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Why the Denial? Pauline Dixon
Over the past decade, low-cost private schools have burgeoned in developing countries. In some areas, the majority of children are attending the low-cost private unaided schools. Children seem to do better in low-cost private schools compared to government ones, and at a fraction of the teacher cost. Figures show that …
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James Tooley challenges Poor Economics
In Poor Economics, MIT professors Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo set out their solutions for global poverty. Their key premise is that development experts have been sidetracked by the “big questions” of development, such as the role of government and the role of aid. This approach, they say, should be …
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The coming qualifications revolution
A new generation of qualifications has recently emerged in the global IT sector, which operate very differently from our traditional GCSE’s and A Levels. For example, Microsoft Learning is now a global leader in IT qualifications and they offer a wide range of Microsoft Certifications which provide individuals with technical …
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The Profit Motive in Education: Continuing the Revolution (2012)
This monograph makes the case for widespread acceptance of the profit motive in education. It does so not by presenting statistics that demonstrate that profit-making organisations could drive up quality – there is already a substantial literature on this. Instead, the authors show how profit making organisations could create an …
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From Village School to Global Brand: Changing the World through Education (2012)
Can education be run as a profitable business and still be driven by a humanitarian vision? SABIS® shows the answer is yes. Now with 60 schools in 15 countries and over 60,000 students, SABIS® is a global education company committed to improving lives. The book is a journey through time …
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Future Learning – Short Documentary, Sugata Mitra
“I wanted to avoid the usual doom and gloom—the usual ‘it’s all crap and there’s no hope for the future,’” says Eli A. Kaufman, GOOD’s director of video production and the creator of our latest education micro documentary, “Future Learning”. Instead of making a film about everything that’s wrong with …
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The Private School Revolution in Bihar, India (2012)
Recent research carried out by the India Institute and the E.G. West Centre in the Indian city of Patna has produced some remarkable findings. The report, The Private School Revolution In Bihar, India, shows that government statistics are currently excluding three quarters of the schools in the city and 68% of …
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Beyond the Hole in the Wall (2012)
Ten years ago, educator Sugata Mitra and his colleagues cracked open a hole in a wall bordering an urban slum in New Delhi, installed a networked PC, and left it there for the local children to freely explore. What they quickly saw in their ‘Hole in the Wall’ experiment was …
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How Private Schools are Serving the Poor, TEDx Talk by Pauline Dixon
Seminal research in the slums and shanty towns of Asia and Africa shows not only the numbers of low-cost private schools around the world but why, how and by whom they are run and patronised. Dr. Pauline Dixon looks at parental choice, the comparison between government and low-cost private schools …
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E.G. West Memorial Lecture
On October 19th 2011 Professor James Tooley delivered the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) E.G. West Memorial Lecture at Church House, Westminster, London. In his address, Professor Tooley challenges the accepted notions about profit in education – and states the case for a free, unrestricted market. His lecture marks the …
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Sugata Mitra, World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE)
Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University, talks about how his Hole in the Wall Experiment helped poor children in the slums of Hyderabad, India teach themselves English.
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Self Organised Learning. Sugata Mitra, TED Talk.
Education is a self-organizing system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon. Sugata Mitra Further details of Sugata Mitra’s research programme can be found at sugatam.blogspot.com
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The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey Into How the World’s Poorest People Are Educating Themselves (2009)
While researching private schools in India for the World Bank, and worrying that he was doing little to help the poor, Professor Tooley wandered into the slums of Hyderabad’s Old City. Shocked to find it overflowing with small, parent-funded schools, he set out to discover if they could help achieve …
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The Classical Economists on Education by E.G. West
Together with his historical research on education, E.G. West was also a recognised scholar on the life and work of Adam Smith. He was therefore well placed to comment on the classical economists views on education and in this 20 minute talk he critically examines the views of both Thomas …
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