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The English have been surprised by Professor James Tooley's observations that India can teach Britain something about education. This is unusual spin over the usual foreign expert who patronisingly offers us advice on how to improve ourselves. Indeed, when Tooley wrote about this in the Times Education Supplement his editor was so perplexed that he inserted a photo of an impoverished school in Bihar with a caption, "Education in India has a lot to teach the British"--implying, may be, that the good professor had lost it. The professor of education from Newcastle has been documenting a "self help" revolution in Indian towns and villages as education entrepreneurs are opening private schools and creating opportunities for the poor to rise. Most Indians would agree that private schools are indeed mushrooming across India (although they worry about their indifferent quality.) This may explain, in part, why literacy has grown at double our historic rate--1.4 per cent a year between 1992-1998 versus 0.7 per cent between 1950-1990. Professor Tooley argues that India's blossoming spirit has much to teach England's poorer inner city areas. Most of us were shocked 18 months ago when the government sponsored Public Report on Basic Education in India (PROBE) disclosed that teaching was going on in only 53 per cent of government schools in M.P., Bihar, U.P., Rajasthan villages. Teachers were absent in one-third; many had brazenly closed their schools and were busy running shops. Some teachers were found drunk and a few even expected pupils to bring them "daru". A few were asleep; others engaged children in domestic chores, including minding their babies. Given this, is it surprising that parents are turning to private schools in more and communities? PROBE confirmed that village private schools, in contrast, had "feverish classroom activity" and more dedicated teachers. The reason, it said, was that teachers were accountable to managers (who could fire them) and to parents (who could remove their children). Research shows that these private schools charge modestly--from Rs. 35 to Rs. 50 per month in villages and Rs. 65-100 in towns. They are also popular because they teach English. In the slums behind the Charminar, in Hyderabad, a private school exists in every alley. 500 such schools belong to the Federation of Private Schools, and they are mainly in poor communities. They are run on commercial principles charging Rs. 750 per year and do not depend on state subsidies or private charity. Typical parents include rikshaw-pullers and vegetable and fruit sellers, and many schools offer free seats to roughly 20 per cent of the poorest students. Professor Tooley has observed this same phenomenon in Thailand, Columbia, Tanzania, and Chile. Cheap private schools are doing more for the poor since state education has let them down. What should we do? We must not only fix the shocking state of our government schools, but we must also nurture and encourage private schools. Today, private schools face great hostility because we have not got used to the idea that education can be commercial. Indeed, the infamous Unnikrishnan judgement of the Supreme Court prohibits "commercialisation" of education. The bureaucracy exploits society's prejudice and has created a virtual license raj. It makes it impossible to start a new school without paying a bribe. Education entrepreneurs face a plethora of regulations, which limit competition, create artificial scarcity, and allow existing schools to exploit parents. Their major problem continues to be "recognition", which requires that schools have playgrounds among dozens of other requirements. All very well, but private schools for the poor cannot afford these middle class luxuries. Indeed, the PM's Economic Advisory Council has recognised this problem and has recommended that "education must be liberalised and all entry-exit restrictions and bureaucratic hurdles faced by [private] schools and colleges should be abolished." We should also ask hard questions. Given the shocking state of government schools, can we trust the state to deliver education? If we can't trust it to produce bread, how can we trust it with the minds of our young? It is one thing to believe that the state must provide money for primary education, it is quite another that the state must be in the business of running schools. Wouldn't it be better if our state schools were managed by NGO's, education professionals and entrepreneurs on a contract that was renewable based on performance? Indeed, there exist NGOs today who already run parallel schools (inside government schools during off-hours) and they deliver excellent results. This change won't occur overnight, but meanwhile we can make a beginning and become more understanding of these new private schools and fight against the license raj in education.