Suchergebnisse

The accepted wisdom says that the poor need billions of dollars more in donor aid for state education. But this ignores the reality that poor parents are abandoning government schools to send their children to 'budget' private schools that charge very low fees, affordable to parents on minimum wages. Recent research shows that private schools for the poor are superior to government schools – teachers are more committed, the provision of inputs better and educational outcomes better – even after controlling for background variables. All this is accomplished for a fraction of the per‐pupil teacher cost of government schools. The development community could therefore assist the poor by extending access to private schools through targeted vouchers. There are also opportunities for investors to contribute through microfinance‐type loans, dedicated education investment funds and joint ventures with educational entrepreneurs, including the development of brands of budget private schools to help solve the information problem facing poor parents.

It is unclear why Watkins ignored a fundamental point of my article: education for the poor can be financed by the state or through private means, by those who are not poor so affordability of education need not be an issue. The fact that the poor are willing to pay fees when alternative state education is free is an indictment of state education in developing countries. The poor simply cannot wait in the hope that the state might provide better education. Their needs are urgent and can be met by private schools.

Government schools cannot provide quality education for all. If the goal of education for all is to be achieved, the private sector must be encouraged and not squeezed out. Development agencies need to wake up to this because large‐scale government education leads to failure on a large scale that can cause serious harm to the poor.