VIDEO: Private Schooling to Overcome Poverty - Dr Pauline Dixon

Dr Pauline Dixon's brilliant presentation on the occasion of receiving the Free Market Foundation's Luminary Award - presented by FMF Chairman Herman Mashaba and Board Member Nic Frangos.

Dr Dixon presents the results of the magnificent research conducted in poor urban areas in Africa and Asia which shows how entrepreneurs from within these poor communities are providing low cost private schooling which outstrips government schooling with smaller classrooms good quality of teaching and good academic results - thus providing their children the best education they are able to offer.

In many cases parents prefer to send their children to these paid schools rather than the "free" government schools close-by because the education being offered is superior to government schools due in large part to diligent teaching practices. Private schools also offer parents the opportunity to be more involved in their children's education than the bureaucracy in government schools generally allows.

If you are offered free fruits at the market you can be sure that they are rotten and if you want fresh produce then you pay for it – the same principle applies for educating your children. If you send them to government schools, especially in Asia and Africa, you are signing them up for poor quality education,” The private school teachers are more responsive to parent participation, concerns and complaints than the heavily unionised government school teachers tend to be. Because they are paying for the service the private school teachers  are more directly accountable to them. Teachers accepting personal accountability to parents is starkley lacking in the government schooling systems across the continents.