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James Tooley

James Tooley, PhD, Professor of Education Policy at Newcastle University, is the Director of the E.G. West Centre. Recently, Professor Tooley completed a three year international research programme funded by the John Templeton Foundation, that explored the nature and extent of private education serving low income families in Asia and Africa. For this work, Tooley was awarded Gold Prize in the first International Finance corporation/Financial Times Private Sector Development Competition, in September 2006.

His research is ongoing in India, China, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana, linking budget private education with the innovative technology and pedagogy of Professor Sugata Mitra’s ‘Hole in the Wall’ project. Previously, Professor Tooley directed the global study of investment opportunities for private education in developing countries for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - the private finance arm of the World Bank.