In Ga's towns and villages our researchers found a total of 799 schools, 25 percent of which were government, 52 percent recognized private, and 23 percent
unrecognized private.
In each of the settings, on unannounced quality control visits, I found
unrecognized private schools that had not been reported by the teams.
In only half the government schools were toilets provided for children, compared with 100 percent and 96 percent of the recognized and
unrecognized private schools.
The average monthly fee for
an unrecognized private school in Ga is about $ 4 for the early elementary grades, about $ 7 in recognized schools.
And this is true even of
the unrecognized private schools, schools that development experts dismiss, if they acknowledge their existence at all, as being of poor quality.
In terms of total student enrollment in the slum areas of the three zones, with 918 schools, 76 percent of all schoolchildren attended either recognized or
unrecognized private schools, with roughly the same percentage of children in the
unrecognized private schools as in government schools (see Figure 1).
In Hyderabad, students attending recognized and
unrecognized private schools outperformed their peers in government schools by a full standard deviation in both English and math (after accounting for differences in their observable characteristics).
Not exact matches
However, only 54 percent of government schools provided drinking water to children compared with 63 percent of
private unrecognized and 87 percent of
private recognized schools.
Desks were provided in 97 percent of government schools, but only in 61 percent of
private unrecognized; recognized
private schools provided them in 92 percent of cases.
With a minimum wage of about $ 33 per month in the area, monthly fees in the
private unrecognized schools are thus about 12 percent of the average monthly earnings of an adult earner.
Unlike India, where there are restrictions on
private - school ownership (
private schools must be owned by a society or trust), in Ga the vast majority of
private schools (82 percent of recognized and 93 percent of
unrecognized) are run by individual proprietors; most of the rest are owned and managed by charitable organizations.
input, including the provision of blackboards, playgrounds, desks, drinking water, toilets, and separate toilets for boys and girls, both types of
private schools, recognized and
unrecognized, were superior to the government schools.
When researchers called unannounced on the classrooms in Hyderabad, 98 percent of teachers were teaching in the
private recognized schools, compared with 91 percent in the
unrecognized and 75 percent in the government schools.
For instance, 95 percent of government schools in Ga had playgrounds, compared with 66 percent and 82 percent of
private unrecognized and recognized schools, respectively.
Finally, tuition in these schools is very low, averaging about $ 2.12 per month in recognized
private schools at 1st grade and $ 1.51 in
unrecognized schools.
Indeed, in those areas where we were able to adequately compare public and
private provision, a large majority of schoolchildren are in
private school, a significant number of them in
unrecognized schools and not on the state's radar at all.
In Hyderabad,
private schools, including the
unrecognized ones, had significant advantages over the government schools: the average pupil - teacher ratio was 42:1 in government schools compared with only 22:1 in the
unrecognized and 27:1 in the recognized
private schools.
A library was provided in 8 percent of government, 7 percent of
private unrecognized schools, but 27 percent of
private recognized schools.
In these areas alone our team found 918 schools: 35 percent were government run; 23 percent were
private schools that had official recognition by the government («recognized»); and, incredibly, 37 percent slipped under the government radar («
unrecognized»).
Fees amount to about 7 percent of average monthly earnings in a typical household using a
private unrecognized school.
The
private Bar serves approximately 15 - 20 % of potential legal system users, leaving roughly 80 - 85 % of other legal problems, issues and opportunities unserved or
unrecognized.