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15October2015

HOTONTHEBLOG

Featuringfreshtakesandrealtimeanalysisfrom
HuffPost'ssignaturelineupofcontributors

AaronBenavot

AndyBurnham

BorisJohnson

AdamHills

YvetteCooper

Becomeafan

DirectoroftheEducationforAllGlobalMonitoringReportat
UNESCO

WilltheGrowthofPrivateSchoolingHelpAchieve
Quality,UniversalandFreeEducation?
Posted:30/09/201515:55BST

Updated:30/09/201515:59BST

Last week, world leaders put their signature to 169 targets for the next 15 years. One of the education targets stands out in its scale of
ambition:"By2030,ensurethatallgirlsandboyscompletefree,equitableandqualityprimaryandsecondaryeducationleadingtorelevant
andeffectivelearningoutcomes".Declaringthatprimaryandsecondaryeducationshouldbe'free'isconsistentwitheducationasaright.
Yetthiscommitmentisalsoacauseforreflection.Ifeducationisbeingprovided,howmuchdoesitmatterifitisnotfree?Ifparentswantto
payfortheirchildren'seducation,isthatwrong?

Thespreadofprivateeducation,especiallylowfeeprivateschools,hasattractedmuchcriticaldiscussion
recently. The debate was stirred by a recent lead article in the Economist that came out strongly in
favour of private schools and the subsequent fieryresponses written by those on the other side of the
fence.
The Special Rapporteur on the right to education argued earlier this year that "privatization violates
many of the norms of the right to education". Yet, it is impractical to imagine disbanding all private
schools tomorrow. Can we ever achieve our vision of leaving noone behind if education is not always
free,notevenatthepointofaccess?
Privateschoolinghasbeenontherisesince2000
Officialstatisticssuggestthattheshareofprivateenrolmentshasonlyincreasedmodestly,from7%in
2000 to 9% in 2012 at the primary education level. However, there is a sense that this may be an
underestimateasprivateschoolsaresometimesnotfullycountedinofficialstatistics.Forexample,UIS
datadonotallowtrendstobeobservedincountriessuchasIndia,Kenya,NigeriaandPakistan,which
havebeenatthecentreofthedebateonprivateeducation.

The2015GMRquotedevidencesuggestingthatinSouthAsiaapproximatelyonethirdof6to18yearoldsattendedprivateschools. In
Lagos,Nigeria,privateschoolsaccountedforasmuchas70%ofthepreprimaryandprimarylevelsinthe2010/11schoolyear.
Incountriesatdifferentincomelevels,governmentshaveevenproactivelyopenedupeducationprovisionandfinancingtoprivateactors.

Howdoprivateschoolsdifferfrompublicschools?
Mixed evidence on performance: While students in private primary schools often perform better than those in public schools on
learningassessments,itishardtodisentangleanyqualitypremiumfromthefactthatthoseenrolledinprivateschoolsareoftenofrelatively
advantagedbackgrounds.
InChile,whereitwaspossibletocomparepublicandprivateschoolchildrenofsimilarbackgrounds,theprivateschooladvantagewasless
pronounced.Similarly,intheUnitedStates,recentevidencesuggestsapublicschooladvantageoncethedemographicmixisdisentangled
fromthedimensionofschoolquality.Bycontrast,intheRepublicofKorea,wherestudentsarerandomlyassignedtoprivateandpublichigh
schools,privateschoolstudentsappeartooutperformpublicschoolstudents,anoutcomeattributedtotheirschools'greaterautonomyand
higheraccountability.
PupilStephenfromtheprivateAICNakulujaAcademyshowssomeofthebookstheclasshave
inLodwar,Turkana,Kenya.
Credit:KarelPrinsloo/ARETE
Perception of better quality and peer networks: Perhaps the meaning of quality
shouldn'tbesimplythroughlearningassessmentshowever.Itisenoughifparentsperceivea
private school to be of better quality or recognize that it offers their children better peer
networksandotherlifelongbenefits.
However, the tendency for parents to send their children to private schools has wider
implications. In Chile, New Zealand, Sweden and the United States, for instance, freedom to
choose schools often leads to increased inequality. This sorting can have a direct impact on
quality as the wealthier and higher ability students and the better networked schools end up
withthemostbenefits,andpublicschoolsincreasinglyservedisadvantagedandmarginalized
populations.
Lack of evidence on innovation: It is sometimes assumed that private schools might have more freedom to offer innovative ways to
improve the quality of education, yet there is no evidence to back this up. There was little difference in curricula in private schools in
GhanaandNigeriaandtherewasalackofinnovativeteachingmethodsinprivateschoolsinKenya.Infact,publicschoolsmayhavemore
scopetobeinnovativewiththecurriculumwhileprivateschoolsaremoreweddedtoparentdemandsforgoodexaminationresults.
Higherteachingeffort:Theoneareawhereevidencedoesappeartoputprivateeducationabovepublicisintheeffortputintoteaching.
Thereisevidenceofhigheraverageeffortsbyteachersandresponsivenessbyparentsinprivateschoolsindevelopingcountries,evenifthey
aremorelikelytohireteacherswholackteachertrainingandexperiencehigherteacherturnover.Comparisonsbetweenpublicandprivate
schoolsinsomedevelopingcountriessuggestprivateschoolshavelowerteacherabsenteeism,catermoretoparentdemandsandhavelower
pupil/teacherratios.
Overall, the evidence as to whether private schools provide a better quality of education is inconclusive.

However, theperception that

privateschoolsprovidehigherqualityeducationcanhavelongrunconsequencesontheeducationsystem.Itmaystigmatisepublicschools,
andunderminereformefforts,abettingtheirfurtherdecline.Thegrowthofprivateprovisioncanendupundermininggovernmentprovision
since public schools must increasingly serve children whose parents are either unable or unwilling to pay for education. This should give
serious pause for thought to governments that are considering a greater role for private provision, and multilateral agencies that are
investingincorporatebackedchainsofprivateschools.
Oneofthekeyrecommendationstoemergefromthe2015GMRisthateducationshouldbefree.Weknowthatpublicschoolsareoftennot
free most of the time, so it is hard to argue that private schooling alone is impeding the right to 'free' education. However, we have just
signeduptoanewagendathatboldlyaimsatatrulyaspirationalvisionforeducationinthefuture,includingthatitshouldbefree.Surely
noonewouldwanttoshrugoffthishopesosoon.
FollowAaronBenavotonTwitter:www.twitter.com/efareport
MORE: PrivateSchool PrivateEducation PrivateSector Private Development FrDucation Sdgs Sdg SustainableDevelopmentGoals

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