Next we decided to visit a government school. Barun and I were met by the Headmaster, under the watchful eyes of his ultimate Headmasters, Nehru and Gandhi.

     The students were in well-ordered lines, stamping in unison and saluting to our visit. There are about 400 enrolled, though a large number were out in the fields this day, helping with the harvest.

     The students are offered facilities, free tuition, and a free meal for lunch. There are 10 teachers, sometimes with classes as large as 150 students.

     Teachers are civil-service employees, each paid about $200 US per month. So the pay for 10 teachers is $2000 US per month. Thus, each teacher is paid four times as much as a teacher in the private school we visited.

     Teachers in the government schools are rotated to a new school every two or three years, and in addition to teaching duties are often required to conduct ballot and census-counting duties throughout the countryside.

     When asked what these students' plans were for higher education, we were told by the teachers that none of them would go on for any education beyond elementary school. We were told that class enrollments drop dramatically after the first couple years of schooling.

     So why would parents in a very poor community pay money for their kids to go to private schools when the government schools were free? In a paper published by Barun's Liberty Institute in New Delhi, James Tooley provided some interesting insight: "When researchers called unannounced . . . only in 53 per cent of the schools was there any 'teaching activity' going on. ... In fully 33%, the head teacher was absent." Tooley says the same was true of private schools that operated on government grants.

     But the unaided private schools were a sharp contrast in vitality and learning. Indeed, Tooley found that these private school students, when unaided by any government funding, showed test scores in reading and math that were twice the levels of students in the government schools or in the government-aided private schools. He concluded that the significant difference was in the accountability of owners and teachers to paying customers.

     Barun Mitra commented to me, "The teacher in the private school was more keen on ensuring that his students went to high school, and further. Another interesting point about the private school was that for grade 7 and 8, the school fee was $2 US. But with around $50 US, net income, the owner was still willing to offer free tuition or discounts to students who could not really pay. The owner felt that these children were his neighbours." Tooley observed that virtually anyone could afford the tuition, from rickshaw pullers to fruit sellers, yet up to 20% of the school spaces were held for those who couldn't pay even that much.

     My heart went out to these dedicated private-school teachers, students, and parents. I have their address and plan to make contact again. Imagine what they might do with a laptop! In the meantime, they taught me a lot about the future of India, a country that is in rapid transformation and growing rapidly because of private initiative.