Ichiro Murata, a director at the Academy of Management Development, which lists many of Japan's corporate giants among its clients, says it is hard to find good teachers who understand both technology and business.

ECONOMIST: Japan's best engineers are having to learn about business

"We find that once the very good teachers have that experience, many of them want to stay, because they find they can contribute so much more, " Mr Holley said.

BBC: Teacher

Let's remove barriers to qualified instructors, attract and reward good teachers, and help bad teachers find another line of work.

CNN: McCain: Change is coming

It too sounds a fine idea, but even top private schools, with lots of money and good teachers, find it tricky to timetable lots of variation within one age-group's lessons.

ECONOMIST: Exams

Taxpayers might well balk at the costs of trying out four teachers to find one good one.

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