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As private education rises globally, researchers disagree whether it’s worth it | Guardian Sustainable Business

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Gnana Deepam Matric School in Tamil Nadu, India Photograph: Gnana Deepam Matric School They go further. Last year’s review is based on “biased assumptions”, displays “odd” conclusions and fails to “adequately reflect the studies surveyed”, they allege. “There does seem to be a prejudice against non-state providers … there’s a subconscious inhibition when reading the evidence to think it can possibly means what it says,” says James Tooley, professor of education policy at Newcastle University and lead author of the new study, which was commissioned by the UK publisher Pearson Education.

In part, this is an academic spat. For one, the paucity of studies on low-cost private schools means the evidence is weak, full stop. What studies have been done, meanwhile, tend to focus on specific geographies, such as India and Pakistan. Few studies fully account for pupils’ socio-economic background either, making it unclear if positive educational outcomes are the result of a student being better taught or just being richer.

Free or fees: discuss Away from the ivory towers, very real issues are at play. Should foreign donors increase funding for private schools, for instance? Is it legitimate for companies to try and consolidate the low-cost private-school market? Is “market” even a legitimate term?

The lines are already being drawn. On the one hand, many development organisations, such as Oxfam, see private education as a dangerous distraction. Max Lawson, Oxfam’s head of global campaigns, sums up such thinking: “It’s common sense that private schools never have and never will deliver for poor people … Only free public schooling can see us move closer to education for all as opposed to a few.”

On the other hand, big business is already moving in. The UK-based publishing and education group Pearson is among the first. Through its £33m ($ 49m) Affordable Learning Fund, it already counts “substantial minority investments” in chains of low-cost private schools in South Africa, the Philippines, Ghana and India.

“There are a lot of small [private school] providers and clearly a lot of demand with parents voting with their feet because of frustration with government systems,” says Michael Barber, Pearson’s chief education adviser.

While the company insists that it wishes to improve education outcomes for the poor, it doesn’t flinch from the fact that it expects financial returns too. That means expansion, which, in turn, means winning policy support. “We also want demonstration projects so that we can go to governments and others and say, ‘Here’s a way of teaching children to much higher standards … Why don’t you look at this?’” Barber says.

Making money from low-cost private schools won’t be easy. In some countries, private schools are legally restricted from making profits. Schools such as Gnana Deepam Matric School, meanwhile, only survive thanks to charitable donations from overseas.

For its part, DFID remains on the fence. It concedes that private schools are now an “embedded part” of the education system in most developing countries. It also funds programmes to keep pupils who are already enrolled in non-state schools in the classroom. Going forward, a spokesperson for the government body says it will take “an evidence-based stance on how services should be delivered”.

So the ball is back with the academics to slug it out. As they fight over statistics, however, pupils across the developing world are still struggling to learn basic mathematics. Fixing that is a certainly a challenge for governments. Much less certain is whether it should also be a business opportunity for companies.

The role of business in development hub is funded by Business Call to Action. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled “brought to you by”. Find out more here.


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