What You'll Learn:
The gurus of international development seem convinced that improving public education is the answer to the problems of illiteracy and failing schools in the developing world. What most education officials, researchers, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) tend to ignore or downplay is that the poor have abandoned public schools in favor of low-cost private schools. The Beautiful Tree is an account of the poor who are tired of waiting for government aid and for NGOs to find creative, affordable alternatives to educate their children.
Key Insights:
- In education, there is a pervasive assumption that private schools are for the rich only and that the poor cannot help themselves.
- The poor’s initiative in educating themselves gets glossed over or completely ignored in development literature.
- Public school principals and teachers are out of touch with the viewpoints of the poor in their own districts.
- Public schools are failing the world’s poor.
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