Perhaps we’re doing third world development all wrong.

That was the thought that stuck with me most after I finished reading James Tooley’s The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey into How the World’s Poorest are Educating Themselves, a surprisingly readable book about the role of private schools in education in some of the world's poorest neighborhood. In The Beautiful Tree, Tooley tells his story about discovering private schools in some of the world’s poorest neighborhoods and discovering that in case after case they are doing well, are educating the poor, and are often, if not always competitive with the much better funded government schools that are found nearby.

It’s a proposition that surprised me, and for good reason: the private schools in my neighborhood—which is already among the higher income brackets in the state—are prohibitively expensive. Fortunately, I have a high degree of confidence in the public schools available to my family, but what about in places where public schools are failing or are inadequate? What choices do those who live there have?

Tooley found himself in some of these places while researching private schools in India for the World Bank. One day, he wondered into one of the poorer neighborhoods Hyderabad’s Old City and found it overflowing with small, parent-funded schools. At first, such schools seemed to be the exception rather than the rule, but as Tooley began to look for schools in other countries where his World Bank research took him, he found similar schools and similar stories, often existing in spite of the protests of government officials that private schools could not and did not exist for the poor (Tooley finds them specifically in India, Nigeria, Ghana and China, though this latter case is unique from the others).

Ironically, the book is not a critique of what is going wrong in the world, but rather seems expository of something that is going right and without the interference or help of the state. Parents, dismayed at slovenly, under-motivated and underperforming schools, banded together to form schools that are accountable to them, and the results are astounding, providing education to student who would not otherwise have opportunity.

Did I mention that these private schools are not subsidized, let alone acknowledged, by the government? Rather, parents scrimp and save, putting a premium on the education of their children. No one is going to get rich teaching at private school, thought: Tooley quotes fees at $10 per year in some cases, and generally in the range 4-20% of the minimum wage of the country. Some schools even offer scholarships to help students who still cannot afford the fees.

How do private school students rate against their peers? Tooley tested 24,000 students in India, Nigeria, Ghana and China in math and language proficiency. In India and Africa, children in private schools almost always excelled over those in public schools; in China, private schools were more likely to be limited to remote locations where travel to public schools was not safe. The one place that the government did better than private schools was in providing playgrounds for schools.

Tooley seems to attribute the cause to a general lack of accountability among government teachers, whereas private school teachers were held directly accountable by parents. With no incentive to excel among government teachers, they often delivered high rates of absenteeism, failed to teach altogether, or allowed classes to collapse into chaos. Tooley also notes that government inspectors meant to assure teaching standards were easily paid off and kept away from government classrooms.

If there’s more I would have asked from Tooley, it would have been how to replicate the successes that he saw in India, Ghana, and Nigeria. If there’s a way to bring about serious and long-term change to the third world, it should be replicated.

Tooley tells the story in a series of anecdotes that is appealing and makes the reading easy. not to mention powerful. Even if third world development is not your cup of tea (it’s not mine), the story is fascinating. ( )

The Beautiful Tree has the potential to be a paradigm-shattering book.

James Tooley was a typical NGO operative sent to India to work on education initiatives. But he had far too much integrity – or was simply too slow on the uptake – to fall into the well-worn ruts aid agencies run through year after year, and decade after decade. That is, he refused to believe that the only way educational access and quality could be improved in developing countries was to shovel aid money to government education bureaucracies.

Tooley asked the question that should be obvious, but that is rarely asked: if so much money has been donated and poured into these educational establishments, where is the improvement? The answer, of course, is that it’s largely been frittered away on bribes, kickbacks, featherbedding (much of this by the NGOs themselves) and pure waste.

And yet in the places Tooley visited and explores in this book – especially India and Ghana – he finds that lots of children are being educated even though the government systems fail them miserably. How? In hundreds and thousands of little independent, profit-making, private schools run by educational entrepreneurs.

Tooley is repeatedly assured by other aid workers and government education apparatchiks that such schools don’t exist. Then, when he proves they do, he’s told in no uncertain terms that they must be so bad as to be worse than no schooling at all, since they lack the government and hence UN/international seal of approval.

Tooley refuses to accept these self-serving lies, and the rest of his book is a total joy to read, as he explores the possibilities of private education around the world.

Highly, highly recommended. ( )

To Edwin, with admiration and affection. James Tooley 21 April 2010, Miami