A personal journey into how the world's poorest people are educating themselves

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Recent Blogs

Fieldwork of James Tooley
Jul Mon 2010

Tooley (Reclaiming Education) documents his surprising finding that private schools are providing quality education to millions of poor children in the developing world. Whereas development experts insist that the path out of poverty lies in investment in public schools, the author draws on his fieldwork in India, China and Africa to argue that small entrepreneurs are educating the poor.

The Beautiful Tree win the 2010 Sir Antony Fisher Memorial Award
Jul Mon 2010

James Tooley’s recent book The Beautiful Tree is the best single book on public policy to be published since Charles Murray’s Losing Ground  twenty-five years ago. It richly deserves to win the 2010 Sir Antony Fisher Memorial Award

About James Tooley
James Tooley is a professor of education policy at Newcastle university, where he directs the E. G. West Centre. For his ground-breaking research on private education for the poor in India, China and Africa, Professor Tooley was awarded gold prize in the first International Finance Corporation/Financial Times Private Sector Development Competition...
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About Beautiful Tree
Private education might be considered a privilege for the wealthy, but in India it is often considered necessary in the face of an inconsistent public education system. In the first of a series of excerpts from James Tooley's "The Beautiful Tree" the author explores education as a means of economic development on the eve of India's...
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