Abstract
This chapter examines the complex phenomenon of privatization and identifies tensions related to the difficulty in finding a shared definition of what is “public” and what is “private” in education. It provides a systematic description of how the involvement of non-state actors in education, especially at the compulsory level, has been evolving since the 1990s in different regions worldwide. This chapter further identifies some of the most significant rationales behind education privatization and investigates one particular form of education privatization which is influenced by neoliberal ideologies and market principles. It cautions against the potentially adverse impact that market approaches can have on equity and social justice, on democratic policy-making and governance, and on the societal/collective purposes of education.
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Notes
- 1.
Article 13(4) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966.
- 2.
The original, and more detailed chart, can be found in: Burchardt (1997). Boundaries between public and private welfare: a typology and map of services. CASE Paper/2, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, London School of Economics.
- 3.
This was the focus of the education-related goal of the Millennium Development Agenda and of the Education for All movement which, although not only focusing at the primary level, ended by promoting universal primary education.
- 4.
In Peru, it raised from around 16 per cent to more than 29 per cent (UIS database).
- 5.
It has almost doubled in Uganda, from around 10 per cent to 19 per cent, in Burkina Faso from 11 per cent to 20 per cent, in Nigeria from 6 per cent to 12 per cent, in Senegal from 10 per cent to 16 per cent, Congo from 0.35 per cent to 31.07 per cent, Kenya from 4 per cent to almost 16 per cent, and in Ghana from 17 per cent to 25 per cent (data retrieved from the UIS database).
- 6.
For instance, in Nigeria, private schools accounted for 5 per cent of primary enrolment in 2005 and 8 per cent in 2010, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Yet survey data indicate the share was already 13 per cent in 2004 and reached 24 per cent by 2015 (NPC and Macro 2004; Nigeria NPC and RTI International 2016).
- 7.
Measuring Household Expenditure on Education: A Guidebook for designing household survey questionnaires (2018). http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/measuring-household-expenditure-education-2018-en.pdf.
- 8.
According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, “a trained teacher has ‘at least the minimum organized teacher training requirements (pre-service or in-service) to teach a specific level of education according to the relevant national policy or law’. The requirements usually include pedagogical knowledge (approaches, methods and techniques of teaching) and professional knowledge (instruments and legal frameworks governing the teaching profession). Some programs may also cover content knowledge (curriculum, subject matter and use of relevant materials” (UNESCO 2016: 330).
- 9.
The idea of lifelong learning (at that time called lifelong education), for instance, was first introduced as early as 1972 through the landmark publication, Learning to Be: Education in the World of Today and Tomorrow. The Education for All (EFA) movement launched in Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990 was based on a collective commitment to meet the basic learning needs of all. Several years later, the 1996 publication, Learning: The Treasure Within, commonly referred to as the Delors Report, proposed an integrated vision of education based on the four pillars of learning to be, to know, to do, and to live together. The Dakar Framework of Action in 2000 also contributed to the idea that learning constituted a cornerstone for the EFA Agenda, as it was ‘designed to enable all individuals to realize their right to learn …’ (2000: 29). In particular, Goal 6 of Education for All commits world leaders to: ‘Improving every aspect of the quality of education, and ensuring their excellence so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all …’, a clear example of how the goals set out in the Agenda were already much respondent to the notions of quality education and of learning.
- 10.
This expression is used by Noddings (2005) to emphasize the importance of an ‘ethic of care’ in an increasingly achievement-oriented educational environment.
- 11.
Milton Friedman. 1955. The Role of Government in Education, available at www.schoolchoices.org/roo/fried1.htm.
- 12.
The term “New Public Management” was coined by Christopher Hood (1991) to refer to a clustering of elements that included performance targets, specification of standards and indicators, results-driven allocations, inspection and the outsourcing of a range of activities that had once been a central part of the public sector.
- 13.
The term was coined in 1989 by the English economist John Williamson.
- 14.
The prescriptions included policies in such areas as macroeconomic stabilization, economic opening with respect to both trade and investment, and the expansion of market forces within the domestic economy.
- 15.
SAPs consisted in the application of forms of conditionalities to developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, to get new loans and for obtaining lower interest rates on existing loans. SAPs generally implement “free market” programs and policy. These programs include internal changes (notably privatization and deregulation) as well as external ones, especially the reduction of trade barriers.
- 16.
The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is a treaty of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that entered into force in January 1995 as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations. It followed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
- 17.
James Tooley is professor of education policy at the Newcastle University (United Kingdom). He is also a policy entrepreneur and served as a consultant at the World Bank.
- 18.
See in this respect the General Comment No. 13 on the Right to Education (Art. 13 of the Covenant of Economic Social and Cultural Rights): “it is clear that article 13 regards States as having principal responsibility for the direct provision of education in most circumstances; States parties recognize, for example, that the “development of a system of schools at all levels shall be actively pursued” (Art. 13 (2) (e))” (emphasis added).
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Locatelli, R. (2019). A Changing Global Education Landscape: Growing Involvement of Non-State Actors. In: Reframing Education as a Public and Common Good. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24801-7_4
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