No Free Education

Kudos to James Tooley and his investigation of private education in Africa. He is spot on in understanding the importance and value, especially in the Third World, of private schooling and how superior it is to the state-run variety.

The Indian economic miracle is built on private primary and secondary education, largely because the Indian government has always invested so poorly in primary schools — especially rural primary schools — but also because so many Indian parents who get the chance have been willing to sacrifice so much to educate their children. Once “free” becomes part of the equation, the willingness of people to make significant sacrifices of any kind diminishes, as does the quality of learning and teaching.

India supposedly has committed itself to “universal” literacy and expansion of schooling to “meet the needs” of the country’s poor. A laudable goal, on the face of it; who could possibly be opposed to “universal literacy?” Given the sheer size of the country and the number of people, however, this goal is probably not achievable by the state. And where it “succeeds,” those Indians will eventually likely be worse off — not as motived, not as educated, not as capable and not as successful.

The best comparison I know of is the difference between schools in the Arabian Gulf states. In Saudi Arabia, for example, schooling is “free,” while foreign workers with children must pay for their schooling. (Westerners usually have theirs paid for by their employers.) Virtually everyone — including most Saudis — know that Saudi primary and secondary schools are miserable places that fail to educate anyone. Not because they “teach hate,” as so many idiotic Americans think, but because they don’t teach anyone useful skills, like reading, mathematics, and critical thinking. Even when “free,” it’s hardly a bargain. Memorizing the Qur’an, the call to prayer and mastering fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) are all nice but won’t help anyone get a job much of anywhere.

I won’t say most Saudis understand this. But based on my experience, a lot of them do.

The Indian schools in Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, are all private, mostly paid for by parents, and turn out reasonably well-educated and exceptionally motivated students, most of whom know how to read, write, cipher, think and are readily employable just about anywhere in the world.

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12:51 pm on June 28, 2005