G20 china_web

ADVOCACY
EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL
International trends
and the multiple paths
of education privatisation
Education privatisation is an important
topic in the global education agenda, and
generates contentious debates between
a broad range of education stakeholders.
Recently, pro-privatisation reforms are
advancing all over the world. In parallel, enrolment
in private education institutions has experienced
a significant and constant growth, particularly in
low and middle-income countries. Among the most
emblematic policies promoting the involvement
of the private sector are charter schools, voucher
schemes, or the contracting out of private schools.
Although there is a common trend towards
more private participation in education worldwide,
education privatisation is not a monolithic process.
National and sub-national governments are engaging
with privatisation policies for very different political,
economic or social reasons, and in very different
circumstances. Specifically, following a systematic
literature review on the political economy of
education privatisation, our research has identified
six different paths toward education privatisation,
which clearly reflect such diversity:
• Reshaping the role of the state in education.
Drastic privatisation process as part of a structural
state reform adopted by neoliberal governments in
the 1980s and consolidated by succeeding centerleft
administrations.
• Education privatisation in socio-democratic
welfare states. Introduction of market reforms,
framed modernisation of the welfare state, and
with the collaboration of social-democratic forces.
• Scaling-up privatisation. Uneven but progressive
alteration of the system through the authorisation
and encouragement of new forms of provision and
management such as charter schools.
• De facto privatisation in low-income countries.
Expansion of low-fee private schools originally
set by local edupreneurs responding to a growing
education demand, but increasingly promoted by
the international development community.
• Historical public private partnerships, in
countries with a longstanding presence of private,
faith-based schools, which were incorporated
in the state network during the expansion of the
education system in the 20th century.
• Privatisation by way of catastrophes. Education
privatisation catalysed by natural disasters or
violent conflicts, framed by privatisation advocates
as an opportunity to reconstruct the system.
“The Privatization of Education: A Political Economy
of Global Education Reform”, which has been
sponsored by Education International, develops the
main characteristics of each of these paths.
Privatisation solutions are strongly advocated
by international and national actors under the
argument that these solutions contribute to
expanding access, quality and efficiency in education
systems. However, critiques of privatisation, which
are increasingly supported by evidence, show that
education privatisation – especially when it is
associated to market and competition dynamics –
generates further school inequalities, segregation
and discrimination in education. Education
privatisation and marketisation also contribute to
the individual goals of education overshadowing
the social and collective goals. Understanding how
and why education privatisation happens is a first
and necessary step to organise contextualised and
meaningful responses to this global trend.
Order “The Privatisation of Education:
A Political Economy of Global Education Reform”
here: https://go.ei-ie.org/educationprivatisation
ANTONI VERGER,
CLARA FONTDEVILA
AND
ADRIÁN ZANCAJO,
Universitat Autònoma
de Barcelona
www.ei-ie.org