Title: The beautiful tree
Author: James Tooley
Publisher:Viking Penguin India
Price:Rs 499 (got it for 324 from Flipkart)
Page:320
Genre:Education
ISBN:0670083739
Rating:4 out of 5
Source: Personal
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Summary
James Tooley's journey to China, Ghana, India, Nigeria to study on how poor people are trying to educate themselves against all odds...His research on private school gave him a startling insights about its standard and a complete picture about the psychology of poor on education...
Review
If I got my hands on a great book in spanish what would I do with it?? Just flip through the pages unable to decipher a word..But I would enjoy and relish if it had been in English or any other language I am well versesd with...But what would be the case of a person who could read nothing??? A person with no education not by his fault, what are they to do ?? I was questioning myself reading this book..As it says its James Tooley's personal journey into how the world's poorest people are educating themselves...His research for the world bank on private schools in third world countries India, China, Ghana, Nigeria gets an insight about struggle of education...What happens education becomes too costly to afford , a strong will is all that takes to pursue the same...All his research makes three points clear-1) Private schools are performing better in terms of quality than the public schools funded by government..2)The parents do everything they can to educate their children by all means..3) Quality of education is not in terms of infraustructure of the schools nor in the certificates the teachers but the standard of education they are able to give the students in the private schools...In India even when government has opened many schools with free education, Tooley found that parents were not ready to send them there., but prefer much costly private school over public school which the family is unable to afford..Many interviews with parents, children and the people running the private school and few visits to the deserted public schools under the government funding, he found that., in spite of financial deficit the quality of education the private schools were able to provide were good enough for the parents to take the risk....
Everytime he visits a country side or backward area in a new country he expects not to find a private school and very predicatbly he ends up discovering a good private school in narrow alley, under a tattered tached roof with hand written nameboard providing a passerby about a school next by..Tooley is surprised at the state of experts and their take on education while working for the government., conveniently they are unaware of all this plight, Tooley is saddened as of why the government has turned on a blind eye on all these...Tooley argues that as these private schools exist outside the governments' helping hand ., it is left with no choice but to charge higher fee for their survival...Agony of a poor parent, corruption of the government administration are well pinned out..NGOs too are conrtibuting well in brininging about quality education to poor in underdeveloped areas..
Though I agree with Tooley with private schools educating poor, there are schools in city were the education has been developed into a lucrative buisiness, everything made so attractive that every parent aspires to find a place even when they charge money big time...
Your brain might get crowded with many facts and figures yet its worth a read atleast to realise the blessing of education that we have...
This is my 10th book towards my 30 books South Asian challenge
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