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The Beautiful Tree THE Right to Education Act has brought to the fore several debates, issues and controversies. Everyday we are getting fresh data of how many new schools the government is opening in order to accommodate all the children for compulsory education. A hue and cry is also being raised by the private schools about the 25 per cent reservation for children from the economically weaker section. Whether all these hackneyed strategies and clichéd plans will prove to be effective and will ultimately result in the achievement of the desired goal remains to be seen, however, James Tooley presents us with some startling findings that he has tried and tested and has found to be of value in the highly neglected area of private education for the poor. One ardently wishes our policy-makers give them a sincere try to achieve that ever-elusive goal of education for all.
Starting with a thorough survey of education in slums and villages, he went on to compare private schools for the poor (not the elite ones) and public or government school education. He worked with 25,000 pupils, and several parents, teachers, school owners and government officials and discovered that private schools catering to the poor had a better student-teacher ratio, better teacher attendance, students performing better in test scores and responsible school managements, whereas government schools had none of these in spite of spending much more than the private schools for the poor. He explains why it is so and also points out the constraints of these schools before giving recommendations to improve these small private ventures. The book can be read, appreciated, enjoyed and its precious lessons can be learnt by a wide array of groups, right from researchers, to educationists, academicians, developmental experts, policy makers, community representatives, bureaucrats, politicians, business people, corporate houses and people dealing in the business of education. The book is recommended for not one but five different reasons. Firstly, for gaining an insight into how thorough, empirical research can be done on such a vast canvas and how seamlessly the results can be presented—something that new researchers, students can learn from. The book never falters once on the presentation front. Each reference, note is in place and the author leaves no literature unread, no previous works unmentioned. It is a delight to learn about the highly meticulous ways of research that Tooley employs to conduct the voluminous project spread over two continents. The second merit of the book is its style. Despite being a non-fiction about a seemingly dry topic of private education in slums of developing countries, with no attractive or glamorous aspects, the writer is successfully able to arouse and sustain interest and a keen curiosity to uncover the mystery behind the question, “Why poor people go for private education despite it being considered as expensive and of low quality?” The book takes the reader along the investigative journey of Tooley wherein he peels layers and layers of ignorance, misinformation, arrogance and red tapism to reach the reality. To seek the truth, he is ready to go to any lengths, to cross filthy open sewers, climb mountains, suffer hot and humid weathers or to risk the highhandedness of the government officials. Thirdly, by reading the book, one also gets the invaluable lesson that how thoughtless assumptions and received wisdom can lead to comfortable yet dangerously ignorant positions if we keep on treading the rut. Creativity lies in making new connections, discovering new realities which are many a times right in front of our eyes but we are unable to see them because we are so used to looking at things passively without thinking about them. The book implicitly teaches to apply our minds afresh to all challenges big or small that confront us, to look beyond obvious solutions and to identify and overcome the constraints of our own blind spots. The fourth reason is to develop new perspectives, to understand the shifting paradigms in the realm of education, development, policymaking and the omnipresent market forces that shape and mould our institutions continuously. The last reason: the book vindicates the pre-British Indian education system which had roots in antiquity and which was indeed a private schooling system as one of the best methods of providing quality education to all that was also successfully imitated in Britain by educationists of that era. Tooley gives substantial statistical evidence to justify his argument. This reference makes every Indian’s heart swell with pride and pain at the same time. ‘The beautiful tree’, according to Tooley, was the wonderful, need-based, culturally appropriate, indigenous education system of our country which was uprooted by Macaulay and replaced by the crude and irrelevant government or publicly funded education, far removed from the local needs. We, the modern Macaulays are still continuing blindly with that obsolete education system without even glancing at our own strengths. One is really shocked and surprised that how such strong hints and glaring indicators are ignored by experts, eminent professionals, worthy consultants and highly placed academicians. The investigative project comes to a happy ending when we know that Tooley’s ideas have won him the gold prize in the First Annual Private Sector Development Competition, organised by the Financial Times and the International Finance Corporation. Thus ends the personal journey of James Tooley leaving behind several strong inspiring messages. One can choose whichever one likes, relate it to any other sphere of life and it will surely enrich one’s life.
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Working as a Professor of Political Studies in Education at New Castle University, Tooley is an unusual scholar with an uncanny capability of understanding the undercurrents of market demand, researching and interpreting the hidden phenomena of private education for poor and linking diverse areas of education, business, history, politics, development and policy—all in a lucid, sharp and focused way. The book is based on his exhaustive research project spread over five countries—India, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and China.