Reclaiming Education (Continuum Collection) [Paperback]

James Tooley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 2005 | Series: Continuum Collection

What is wrong with education? Why do educational reforms always miss their target? How can we create a better education system? And what can we learn from other countries? Reclaiming Education tackles the challenges facing education that really matter - hte ones that academics often ignore, parents demand solution to and politicians need to confront. Drawing on his global research, James Tooley shows that there is an alternative to poor quality and wasteful inefficiency in education, and that education can be radically transformed to guarantee freedom and higher standards. "Tooley radically challenges any complacency we may have about education in the 21st century." Sir Bob Salisbury "Tooley is an extremist: some of his ideas are outrageous!" Professor Geoffrey Walford, University of Oxford "This is truly a radical book. It should be read by everyone who thinks deeply about education." Sir Christopher Ball>

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Tooley radically challenges any complacency we may have about education in the 21st century." Sir Bob Salisbury; "Tooley is an extremist: some of his ideas are outrageous!" Professor Geoffrey Walford, University of Oxford; "This is truly a radical book. It should be read by everyone who thinks deeply about education." Sir Christopher Ball"

About the Author

James Tooley is Professor of Education Policy at Newcastle University, UK, and President of the Orient Global Education Fund. >

Product Details

• Paperback: 266 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (April 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826479073
• ISBN-13: 978-0826479075
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,515,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Tooley is professor of education policy at Newcastle University, where he directs the E. G. West Centre. For his ground-breaking research on private education for the poor in India, China and Africa, Professor Tooley was awarded gold prize in the first International Finance Corporation/Financial Times Private Sector Development Competition in September 2006. For the past two years, he was President of The Education Fund, Orient Global, living in Hyderabad, India. He is currently chairman of education companies in Ghana and China and advisor to a company in India, all creating embryonic chains of low cost private schools.

Prior to joining Newcastle University, Professor Tooley previously taught and researched at the Universities of Oxford and Manchester, England; Simon Fraser University, Canada; and University of the Western Cape, South Africa. His PhD is from the Institute of Education, University of London. His first job was as a mathematics high school teacher in Zimbabwe, which he took up after graduating with a degree in mathematics and philosophy from Sussex University. His work has been featured in documentaries for the BBC and PBS: for the latter it was profiled alongside the work of Nobel Laureate Mohammed Yunus and Grameen Bank.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SchoolChoices.org Reviews Reclaiming Education, May 2, 2000

By 

Andrew Coulson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reclaiming Education (Paperback)

Most education policy discussions revolve around the merits of this or that reform to our existing public schools, failing to even consider alternative education systems. These discussions are rendered moot by the far more profound analysis presented in Reclaiming Education. With this work, James Tooley addresses a question that few other scholars have had the vision or the expertise to ask: What sort of education system will _best_ serve the public? The cogency of his answer and the soundness of the evidence and arguments on which it is based make Reclaiming Education one of the finest and most important books on education policy ever written...

<read the complete review on the SchoolChoices.org website>

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Education for Profit. It Works!, November 13, 2006

By 

Christopher Chantrill (Seattle, Washington, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reclaiming Education (Continuum Collection) (Paperback)

James Tooley and Andrew Coulson (see below) continue the tradition of E.G. West in asking the big question about education. What's with this idea of government schooling anyway?

In Reclaiming Education Tooley constructs an imaginary focus group to ask an even bigger question. If we started again from scratch how would we think about education and schooling? Well, we certainly wouldn't pack kids off for 12 years of monopoly government schooling.

While we are asking questions, how come that there are plenty of failed government schools but no failed Wal-Marts? Could it be that food markets have a brand to protect and so deploy training, quality control, and research and development to make sure that every store in the chain delivers the same retail food experience?

So why wouldn't the same principle apply to child education? Actually it already does. Out in the developing world there are private companies--NIIT in India, Pitagoras in Brazil, TECSUP in Peru, and Educor in South Africa--delivering low-cost branded education, and they are rapidly expanding. They are ruthless about controlling quality, getting feedback from their students, and exploiting market opportunities.

Read all about it. Then dare to imagine a chain of Edu-Marts in the United States delivering low-coast quality education in the inner city.

Tooley will change the way you think about education.