Serving the Needs of the Poor: The Private Education Sector in Developing Countries
Contributor Name:
Kavita
Recent research from developing countries points out that encouraging deeper private sector involvement is the best way forward to helping disadvantaged communities.
The author examines how public or state education serves some of the poorest in society and then contrasts this information with findings about private schools. He states that:
- The government education system is severely malfunctioning;
- Entrepreneurs have set up private schools to serve these poor communities, partly in response to the perceived inadequacies of state schools;
- These low-cost private schools are doing much better than the government schools in terms of teacher commitment and teaching time;
- Private education, in general, is more effective, at least in terms of student achievement in key subjects, even when controlled for socio-economic class and the background variables of students;
- Research from India shows that private, unaided education is also dramatically more cost-effective than government education.