A common assumption about the private sector of education is that it caters only to the elite. 【C1】______ recent research points in the opposite direction. If we want to help some of most 【C2】______ group in society, then encouraging deeper private sector 【C3】______ is likely to be the best way forward. Several developments are 【C4】______ in India, all of which involve the private education sector meeting the 【C5】______ of the poor in distinct ways. 【C6】______ India is not unique in this respect — similar phenomena are happening all over the developing world. As a point of departure, how do government schools serve the poor? Usefully, the government sponsored Public Report on Basic Education in India from 1999 paints a very 【C7】______ picture of the ' 【C8】______ ' of the government schools for the poor. When researchers 【C9】______ unannounced on their random sample of the schools, only 53% had any 'teaching activity' going on. 【C10】______ , the team noted that the 【C11】______ of teaching standards has nothing to do 【C12】______ disempowered teachers, but instead could be 【C13】______ ' plain negligence'. They noted 'several cases of irresponsible teachers 【C14】______ a school closed for months at a time'. But is there any 【C15】______ to these schools? Surely no one else can do better than government 【C16】______ the resources available? As it happens, the Report pointed to private schools that were serving the poor and 【C17】______ that such problems were not found in these schools. Most parents believed that private schools were successful because they were more accountable: 'the teachers me accountable to the manager who can fire them, and, 【C18】______ him or her, to the 【C19】______ who can withdraw their children.' Such accountability was not present in the government schools, and 'this contrast is 【C20】______ with crystal clarity by vast majority of parents.' 【C1】