This book tells the real story of education in low-income countries and shows why ordinary people are making extreme sacrifices to reject free public schools in favor of low quality private schools, both legal and illegal. Based on the author's experience of working in the UN system, for a child rights NGO in New Delhi; and working on aid projects and with private foundations in Africa and South Asia, Joanna Harma reveals how public education systems got to their current state of dysfunction. She argues that the international aid community and United Nations bodies such as UNESCO and UNICEF have facilitated the decline in public education and argues that young children are being let down by education systems and policy from the local to the international. Harma looks at this issue from the perspectives of various stakeholders including international human rights workers, parents, the companies who set up the schools, policy makers and NGO workers. The book includes a preface from Ben Phillips, Director of Communications at The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Tells the real story of education in low-income countries and why ordinary people make extreme sacrifices to reject free public schools in favor of low quality private schools.

About the Author
Joanna Harma is an independent researcher and writer based in the UK and India. She is the author of Low-fee Private Schooling and Poverty in Developing Countries (Bloomsbury, 2021).


Book Information
ISBN 9781350469228
Author Joanna Harma
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC