IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecaffa/v27y2007i2p37-43.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Educating Amaretch: Private Schools For The Poor And The New Frontier For Investors

Author

Listed:
  • James Tooley

Abstract

The accepted wisdom says that the poor need billions of dollars more in donor aid for state education. But this ignores the reality that poor parents are abandoning government schools to send their children to ‘budget’ private schools that charge very low fees, affordable to parents on minimum wages. Recent research shows that private schools for the poor are superior to government schools – teachers are more committed, the provision of inputs better and educational outcomes better – even after controlling for background variables. All this is accomplished for a fraction of the per‐pupil teacher cost of government schools. The development community could therefore assist the poor by extending access to private schools through targeted vouchers. There are also opportunities for investors to contribute through microfinance‐type loans, dedicated education investment funds and joint ventures with educational entrepreneurs, including the development of brands of budget private schools to help solve the information problem facing poor parents.

Suggested Citation

  • James Tooley, 2007. "Educating Amaretch: Private Schools For The Poor And The New Frontier For Investors," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 37-43, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecaffa:v:27:y:2007:i:2:p:37-43
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0270.2007.00728.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0270.2007.00728.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0270.2007.00728.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alderman, Harold & Kim, Jooseop & Orazem, Peter F., 2003. "Design, evaluation, and sustainability of private schools for the poor: the Pakistan urban and rural fellowship school experiments," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 265-274, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. James Tooley, 2012. "Big Questions and ??Poor Economics??: Banerjee and Duflo on Schooling in Developing Countries," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 9(3), pages 170-185, September.
    2. Yujuico, Emmanuel & Gelb, Betsy D., 2010. "Better marketing to developing countries: Why and how," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 501-509, September.
    3. Tooley, James, 2023. "A life in low-cost private education," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David K. Evans & Arkadipta Ghosh, 2008. "Prioritizing Educational Investments in Children in the Developing World," Working Papers WR-587, RAND Corporation.
    2. Tahir Andrabi & Jishnu Das & Asim Ijaz Khwaja & Tristan Zajonc, 2011. "Do Value-Added Estimates Add Value? Accounting for Learning Dynamics," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 29-54, July.
    3. Orazem, Peter F. & King, Elizabeth M., 2008. "Schooling in Developing Countries: The Roles of Supply, Demand and Government Policy," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 55, pages 3475-3559, Elsevier.
    4. Gulati, Namrata & Ray, Tridip, 2016. "Inequality, neighbourhoods and welfare of the poor," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 214-228.
    5. David K. Evans & Arkadipta Ghosh, 2008. "Prioritizing Educational Investments in Children in the Developing World," Working Papers 587, RAND Corporation.
    6. Lubna Naz & Abdul Salam Lodhi & Daniel W. Tsegai, 2020. "Parents’ Perception of Education and Choice of Childhood Activities: Evidence from Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 59(3), pages 335-355.
    7. Sudipto Mundle, 2018. "Fifty years of Asian experience in the spread of education and healthcare," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-97, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Mundle, Sudipto, 2018. "Development of Education and Health Services in Asia and the Role of the State," Working Papers 18/239, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    9. Orazem, Peter F. & Glewwe, Paul & Patrinos, Harry, 2007. "The Benefits and Costs of Alternative Strategies to Improve Educational Outcomes," Working Papers 7352, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    10. Orazem, Peter F., 2006. "The Benefits and Costs of Alternative Strategies to Combat Illiteracy," Working Papers 18218, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    11. Glewwe, Paul & Kremer, Michael, 2006. "Schools, Teachers, and Education Outcomes in Developing Countries," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & F. Welch (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 16, pages 945-1017, Elsevier.
    12. Hassan Danial Aslam, 2013. "Professional Development of Teachers in Colleges of Pakistan: A Comparative Case Study of Public and Private Colleges of Pakistan," International Journal of Learning and Development, Macrothink Institute, vol. 3(6), pages 167-177, December.
    13. Uzma Ahmad & Steven McIntosh & Gurleen Popli, 2022. "Selection and performance in post‐compulsory education," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 3-31, February.
    14. Felipe Barrera-Osorio & David S. Blakeslee & Matthew Hoover & Leigh Linden & Dhushyanth Raju & Stephen P. Ryan, 2022. "Delivering Education to the Underserved through a Public-Private Partnership Program in Pakistan," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(3), pages 399-416, May.
    15. Harounan Kazianga & Leigh Linden & Ali Protik & Matt Sloan, 2016. "The Medium-Term Impacts of Girl-Friendly Schools: Seven-Year Evidence from School Construction in Burkina Faso," Development Working Papers 406, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano, revised 11 Nov 2016.
    16. Banerjee, Ritwik & King, Elizabeth M. & Orazem, Peter F. & Paterno, Elizabeth M., 2012. "Student and teacher attendance: The role of shared goods in reducing absenteeism," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 563-574.
    17. Sudipto Mundle, 2018. "Fifty years of Asian experience in the spread of education and healthcare," WIDER Working Paper Series 97, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Lloyd, Cynthia B & Mete, Cem & Sathar, Zeba A, 2005. "The Effect of Gender Differences in Primary School Access, Type, and Quality on the Decision to Enroll in Rural Pakistan," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(3), pages 685-710, April.
    19. Masuda, Kazuya & Yamauchi, Chikako, 2018. "The Effects of Universal Secondary Education Program Accompanying Public-Private Partnership on Students' Access, Sorting and Achievement: Evidence from Uganda," CEI Working Paper Series 2018-4, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    20. Isaac M. Mbiti, 2016. "The Need for Accountability in Education in Developing Countries," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(3), pages 109-132, Summer.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecaffa:v:27:y:2007:i:2:p:37-43. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0265-0665 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.