I have just finished reading a new book called From village school to global brand: changing the world through education, which I recommend to anyone at all interested in the crossover between private sector enterprise and education.
It is written by a colleague of mine called Professor James Tooley. He is well-known in certain circles for his previous book called The Beautiful Tree about his experiences with low-cost private school entrepreneurs in India and Africa. His day job is running the E.G.West centre, which is an interesting education department that sits within Newcastle University. Most of the time however Professor Tooley is travelling to far-flung and slightly dangerous places. He's unlike many academics because he has left the ivory tower and applied some of his own theories in the real world. Chiefly by setting up a low-cost private school chain in Ghana called Omega, which has just received a large amount of funding from Pearson education to expand rapidly. This could be very big news if you're a poor Ghanaian parent seeking a better school for your son or daughter. But I'm digressing.
Why did I think this book was an interesting read?
Well,without giving too much away I can tell you that it charts the evolution of the private school chain SABIS from its beginning in Lebanon 125 years ago through to the current day. Prof Tooley has organised in each chapter of the book the key components of the educational model, highlights of the secular humanist ethos, some details on the SABIS flagship schools and the company's wide geographic reach, and the various business models it uses.
He finishes, as one might expect, with a ringing endorsement of the company's senior management personnel and some interesting reflections on why governments are so badly placed to deliver the kinds of quality and scale changes needed within education. There is a particularly good bit I liked where he makes an extended comparison between the airline industry and the education industry. Consumer experience in both is largely determined by the quality and training of the professional service staff, be they air hostesses or teachers. What systems can you put in place to ensure that every passenger or school child comes away with comparably high levels of satisfaction?
So, who would benefit from reading this book?
If you work for a private education company, as I do, it is very revealing about some of the myths and trends within the education industry at large. If you're interested in unusual public-private partnerships there are some detailed case studies of SABIS' PPP models currently deployed within Kurdistan, Abu Dhabi and the USA. If you're an educational theorist the book is interesting on some of the learning mechanisms and 'big data' tools which SABIS has developed over the years. The company is driven by systems and process, in its desire to industrialize its methods, to reduce costs and educator error. It also seeks to innovate to create a student-led school-wide culture, even fully autonomous "teacherless schools" where students who've learnt how to learn can teach themselves and each other. Finally if you're just interested in being a student of business, in particular of family-run businesses, the entire book is a case study of how a single company can grow from humble beginnings and gradually gain influence in increasingly larger spheres and in different countries.
Some of the quotations that stuck with me while reading I copy out below:
"A bright student is usually better than a mediocre teacher at teaching his or her peers." (Mrs Saad)
"We are going against the trend here; we are trying to create a teacher independent classroom. Because if you want to apply it at a scale,it's extremely difficult to build that based on exceptional teachers. You cannot change the level of education worldwide if what you are doing is centered only on the ability of exceptional professionals." (Mrs Saad)
In education, however, governments still second-guess the kind of education required by young people in preparation for adult life and where and how it is delivered. But the mechanisms governments have at their disposal are cumbersome and bureaucratic; in any case, they can't be attuned to issues such as the ways in which humans flourish, central to any ideas of what education is for. (James Tooley)
"All equity investors who came and talked to us were always concerned about their exit strategy after five years. But my short term is 25 years; the long term is the next 100 years." (Carl Bistany)
This last reminds me of the Chairman Mao famous bons mots when asked in the mid 1960s whether he thought the French Revolution of 1789 had been successful.
His reply: "It's too early to tell."
It is true that almost everything to do with education change and reform moves very slowly. I do worry about this, as none of all the well-intentioned reform work we are all now pursuing may even bear fruit for our own children - are there any ways to speed up the lag between policy reform and implementation? A subject for another post I think.
Finally, I should report that I read the bulk of this book via my iPhone and iPad from the Kindle edition. While that's a helpful way to get the text I did notice that the hard copy of the book which I ordered for colleagues in the office has pictures in it, which I didn't get on my digital edition. And we all like pictures.
It is written by a colleague of mine called Professor James Tooley. He is well-known in certain circles for his previous book called The Beautiful Tree about his experiences with low-cost private school entrepreneurs in India and Africa. His day job is running the E.G.West centre, which is an interesting education department that sits within Newcastle University. Most of the time however Professor Tooley is travelling to far-flung and slightly dangerous places. He's unlike many academics because he has left the ivory tower and applied some of his own theories in the real world. Chiefly by setting up a low-cost private school chain in Ghana called Omega, which has just received a large amount of funding from Pearson education to expand rapidly. This could be very big news if you're a poor Ghanaian parent seeking a better school for your son or daughter. But I'm digressing.
Why did I think this book was an interesting read?
Well,without giving too much away I can tell you that it charts the evolution of the private school chain SABIS from its beginning in Lebanon 125 years ago through to the current day. Prof Tooley has organised in each chapter of the book the key components of the educational model, highlights of the secular humanist ethos, some details on the SABIS flagship schools and the company's wide geographic reach, and the various business models it uses.
He finishes, as one might expect, with a ringing endorsement of the company's senior management personnel and some interesting reflections on why governments are so badly placed to deliver the kinds of quality and scale changes needed within education. There is a particularly good bit I liked where he makes an extended comparison between the airline industry and the education industry. Consumer experience in both is largely determined by the quality and training of the professional service staff, be they air hostesses or teachers. What systems can you put in place to ensure that every passenger or school child comes away with comparably high levels of satisfaction?
So, who would benefit from reading this book?
If you work for a private education company, as I do, it is very revealing about some of the myths and trends within the education industry at large. If you're interested in unusual public-private partnerships there are some detailed case studies of SABIS' PPP models currently deployed within Kurdistan, Abu Dhabi and the USA. If you're an educational theorist the book is interesting on some of the learning mechanisms and 'big data' tools which SABIS has developed over the years. The company is driven by systems and process, in its desire to industrialize its methods, to reduce costs and educator error. It also seeks to innovate to create a student-led school-wide culture, even fully autonomous "teacherless schools" where students who've learnt how to learn can teach themselves and each other. Finally if you're just interested in being a student of business, in particular of family-run businesses, the entire book is a case study of how a single company can grow from humble beginnings and gradually gain influence in increasingly larger spheres and in different countries.
Some of the quotations that stuck with me while reading I copy out below:
Collaboration is more important than competition, and that's why ranking of students is not allowed: "One of the results of rankings,"says Ralph Bistany, "is that one kid has an interest in another kids failure. Nobody in society should have an interest in somebody else's failure."
"We are going against the trend here; we are trying to create a teacher independent classroom. Because if you want to apply it at a scale,it's extremely difficult to build that based on exceptional teachers. You cannot change the level of education worldwide if what you are doing is centered only on the ability of exceptional professionals." (Mrs Saad)
In education, however, governments still second-guess the kind of education required by young people in preparation for adult life and where and how it is delivered. But the mechanisms governments have at their disposal are cumbersome and bureaucratic; in any case, they can't be attuned to issues such as the ways in which humans flourish, central to any ideas of what education is for. (James Tooley)
"All equity investors who came and talked to us were always concerned about their exit strategy after five years. But my short term is 25 years; the long term is the next 100 years." (Carl Bistany)
This last reminds me of the Chairman Mao famous bons mots when asked in the mid 1960s whether he thought the French Revolution of 1789 had been successful.
His reply: "It's too early to tell."
It is true that almost everything to do with education change and reform moves very slowly. I do worry about this, as none of all the well-intentioned reform work we are all now pursuing may even bear fruit for our own children - are there any ways to speed up the lag between policy reform and implementation? A subject for another post I think.
Finally, I should report that I read the bulk of this book via my iPhone and iPad from the Kindle edition. While that's a helpful way to get the text I did notice that the hard copy of the book which I ordered for colleagues in the office has pictures in it, which I didn't get on my digital edition. And we all like pictures.
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