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Sekolah Untuk Kaum Miskin: Pelajaran Menakjubkan Dari Masyarakat Paling Miskin Di Dunia (2009)

by James Tooley(Favorite Author)

4.02 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Pustaka Alvabet

review 1: I think this book has an important message. Rather than write another lengthy article let me refer you to Skylar Burris' comprehensive book review. I agree with her observation that the book has good ideas but is too repetitious and becomes dull. That is why I marked this down from 4 stars to three. I would recommend skimming the book because its conclusions are too important to ignore.My wife and I just returned from Tanzania where we worked for a short time at the Rift Valley Children’s Village (look up the video on YouTube if you are interested). There, Ms. India Howell, a brilliant cross between a saint and a CEO, has assumed responsibility for 91 children (at last count) who were abused and would otherwise be living on the street—or worse. What we witnessed reinf... moreorced the findings of James Tooley’s research: Corrupt officials were mismanaging the primary school. Teachers frequently failed to show up for work. When they did they were often drunk. Ms Howell and her dedicated staff, working with parents from the impoverished villages around her facility, arranged to take over the management of the primary school, and in a few short years improved its rating from the lowest performing school in the Arusha district to the highest. She now not only is responsible for educating her own 91 children, but 500 other poor children from the surrounding villages populated by coffee plantation workers. She is now preparing to assume the management of the nearby secondary school so her older children can get the benefit of a real education. She is changing the world one life at a time.I’m a libertarian, but it doesn’t matter whether label ourselves socialists, liberals, or conservatives. We all want our children to succeed and want what’s best for children around the world. Tooley primarily evaluated for-profit private schools that gave scholarships. Ms. Howell gets her funding from a non-profit charitable foundation. All the children in her school have to come up with something—-pencils, uniforms, books, etc. These are not easy to come by, and her foundation supplies what the most destitute lack.The moral of the story is that most poor parents, like most more financially fortunate parents, want the best for their children and want to work in some way to give it to them. As India Howell observed, they want a hand-up, not a handout.No monopoly is good for consumers, and government monopolies potentially can be the worst. If a private for-profit or private non-profit school can provide competition to “free” public schools that are not performing, we should encourage them to thrive.
review 2: A narration of the author's path to discovering the important and the potential role private schools play in developing countries. Written in a first person account of the author's enlightenment process rather than a list of prescription of what a good private school in developing countries should look like or do. Overall an enjoyable read and let me to question some of my own assumptions of private schools in Indonesia. less

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