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So we all have our own biases.

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For example, some of us tend to think

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that it's very difficult to transform failing government systems.

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When we think of government systems,

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we tend to think that they're archaic, 

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set in their ways,

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and perhaps,

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the leadership is just too bureaucratic to be able to change things.

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Well, today,

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I want to challenge that theory.

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I want to tell you a story 

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of a very large government system 

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that has not only put itself on the path of reform

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but has also shown fairly spectacular results

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in less than three years.

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This is what a classroom in a public school in India looks like.

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There are 1 million such schools in India.

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And even for me, who's lived in India all her life,

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walking into one of these schools is fairly heartbreaking. 

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By the time kids are 11,

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50 percent of them have fallen so far behind in their education

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that they have no hope to recover.

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11-year-olds cannot do simple addition,

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they cannot construct a grammatically correct sentence.

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These are things that you and I would expect

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an 8-year-old to be able to do.

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By the time kids are 13 or 14,

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they tend to drop out of schools.

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In India, 

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public schools not only offer free education — 

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they offer free textbooks, free workbooks,

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free meals,

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sometimes even cash scholarships.

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And yet, 

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40 percent of the parents today

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are choosing to pull their children out of public schools

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and pay out of their pockets to put them in private schools.

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As a comparison, in a far richer country,the US,

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that number is only 10 percent.

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That's a huge statement on

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how broken the Indian public education system is.

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So it was with that background

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that I got a call in the summer of 2013

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from an absolutely brilliant lady called Surina Rajan.