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).
By:
Joanna Härmä (University of Sussex UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 20mm
Weight: 378g
ISBN: 9781350469211
ISBN 10: 1350469211
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 20 February 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Preface, Ben Phillips (UNAIDS) Introduction 1. School’s in, but No-One is Learning 2. How UN Efforts Meant Education Quality Would Die and Private Schools Would Flourish 3. The Real Issue of Neglected Early Childhood Development 4. The Crisis Response: Cheap Private Schools 5. Damage and Loss: What Empire Did to Education in India 6. Well-Intentioned (?) Blundering in ‘Advising’ National Governments 7. Bad Advice Regarding the Regulation of Cheap Private Schools 8. Thinking About Education the Way Starbucks Thinks About Coffee 9. Seeking Billions From the Bottom Billions: Capitalising on Aid Spending Through Northern ‘Partnership’ Policies 10. Searching for Solutions That Don’t Exist 11. Thousands of Tiny Lights in The Darkness: In Defence Of Small Endeavours Conclusion References Index
Joanna Härmä 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).
