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Is Private Education Good for the Poor?

Author: J Tooley
Date: 2005
Size: 60 pages (250 KB)

Summary

Many believe that the private sector has little to offer in terms of reaching the Millennium Development Goal of 'education for all' by 2015. Private education is often assumed to be concerned only with serving the elite or middle classes, not the poor. What is the nature and extent of private education for the poor? This working paper outlines how private schools can play an important role in reaching the poor and satisfying their educational needs.

In India and Africa, private schools for low-income families seem to be flourishing, even though government schooling is available and usually free. Unregistered or unrecognised private schools are assumed to be of the lowest quality. However, no quantitative research has been carried out in private schools in low-income areas and the findings of a two-year in-depth study involving India, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya suggest that this conclusion is unwarranted.

Unrecognised schools are perceived to provide minimal quality education because they are unregulated by the state and therefore not complying with government regulations. Such assumptions about the nature and extent of the unrecognised private sector can be challenged in a number of ways:

Private schools generally outperform government schools in terms of raw and standardised scores and pupil-teacher ratios in unrecognised private schools are usually about half those in government schools.
Private unaided schools cost significantly less, as the average monthly teacher salary ranges from three to four times higher in government schools which are also supported by an expensive state bureaucracy.
Private schools reflect higher teacher commitment and sometimes better facilities and teachers are not less satisfied than their government school counterparts even though they are paid considerably less.
'Education for all' by 2015 may be much easier to achieve than is currently believed as many children attending unrecognised private schools do not feature in government statistics, therefore overall enrolment is much higher than figures suggest.
Nothwithstanding the fact that private schools are almost entirely dependent on income from pupils to survive, many offer free or concessionary places to children from the poorest families.

Many have expressed concern that the 'mushrooming' of private unaided schools in sub-Saharan Africa and India may be undesirable. Worries are based on the quality of education that is provided in this low-cost sector where teachers are paid so little. However, rather than assuming that private unaided education is a problem, it could be seen as a great strength and something to be celebrated. It might perhaps be considered a dynamic demonstration of how the entrepreneurial talents of people in Africa and India can forcefully contribute to the improvement of education, even for the poor:

Private education has an important role in helping the government meet its 'education for all' targets. Indeed, the large numbers of pupils already off the state's radar suggest that the target is more achievable than currently believed.
Initiatives to offer free and concessionary seats to the poorest children could be extended and replicated by philanthropists and/or the state to empower many more poor children to attend private unaided schools.
Revolving loan funds could be established and extended to help private schools improve their facilities, thereby enabling more children to access education in an even better, safer and educationally more conducive environment.

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Source: Tooley, J., 2005, 'Is Private Education Good for the Poor?', Working paper, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK