Unlike other blogs, The Filter^ do not ask for your donations.
This
website is intended to be free, and we refrain from invading your
screen with sponsored adverts or pleas for funding. The modest hosting
costs are a small price to pay for the quality of comments we receive,
and the privilege of leading a conversation with our viewers.
This
is what we believe in, and benefit from immeasurably. I'd
feel ungrateful and selfish to ask our sporadic viewers to donate money
to us, when there are so many more worthy recipients. And I'd feel
churlish to ask our more regular readers for money, having been so
hospitably treated whenever i'm home.
That said, I do not want to
promote a culture of passivity, and can think of plenty of charities
that do deserve your attention. For this reason, I have contacted the
E.G. West Centre in Newcastle and offered The Filter^ as a forum to
raise funds.
One of the most
compelling justifications for government action is the provision of
primary education to the poor, however EG West pioneered research into
just how we might best supply it. There are typically three types of school in India:
state, certified private, and private unaided. Of those state schools
that do exist in the deepest slums, poor teaching and overcrowded
classrooms characterise the service. Unhappy - and even amongst such
barren conditions of poverty - the seeds of enterprise emerge. Private
schools exist, and they provide a high standard of education to their
children. Schools typically offer scholarships, so that in each
community the very poorest are funded by the not-so-poorest. Such
private schools are unofficial, however, and lack legal accreditation.
This
can lead to many problems: some are closed down whilst all find it hard
to raise capital. To remain undetected they cannot invest well in
classrooms, and unfortunately the only solution to that is political.
But we can help them raise capital, by donating money to the Educare
Trust. The trust loans money to private schools, who can invest and
provide scholarships - a years tuition costs about £14.
The project is magnificent in it's academic merit, but rises beyond this to make three crucial points regarding development. Firstly, solutions should focus on endogenous wealth creation, rather than exogenous wealth transfers, and education is a prime factor in enabling growth. Secondly, decision making should be as local as possible so that dispersed and tacit knowledge can be utilised. Thirdly, developing countries don't lack capital per se, rather the institutions through which they canuse it to enter the world economy. And fourthly, it demonstrates why we shouldn't assume that the institutional context of our own richer countries should automatically be exported to poorer ones. Private provision of primary education may be unthinkable in the UK, but that shouldn't stop us thinking about whether it's the best option in India.
Consequently the appeal for donations is just part of a broader plea for intellectual debate. The movement to provide affordable and available education to the world's poorest rests more on the battle of ideas than mere fundraising, and successful growth depends on changing the climate of development economics to geniunely promote local entrepreneurial solutions.
I have already donated some funding on behalf of The Filter^, and encourage our readers to nourish the entrepreneurs that are educating their children, despite the governments that try to close them down.
For more information download:
Is Private Education Good for the Poor?.pdf
Private Schools for the Poor .pdf
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