Something to remember: Madras schools

According to the Draft Project Completion Report of the first Madras Urban Development Project (1984), 50% of the primary schools and the majority of secondary schools in Madras were private. I wonder what kind of implications this has for education policy, considering that Tamil Nadu has done so well on increasing literacy. If I remember correctly, Madras district has some of the lowest literacy rates next to extremely poor and rural districts like Dharmapuri.