The impact of private provision of public education: empirical evidence from Bogotá’s concession schools

Are private providers more effective in delivering public education to low-income students? This study examines the impact on student outcomes of the Concession School programme in Bogotá, Colombia, where the state involves private contractors to deliver basic education in extremely poor underserved areas of the city.

Under the concession system, the state provides newly built schools and pays the providers an agreed amount per full-time student, which is higher than what most regular public schools receive. The study notes that visits to the schools identified a higher level of services for students compared with regular public schools, for example:

• concessions schools have very good infrastructure compared with ordinary public schools
• at schools visited, daily psychological counseling is offered to several students, and children that are suspected of having family problems are visited at home by social workers and psychologists from the school. Children that miss classes regularly are also visited at home
• to counter poor nutrition, several concession schools offer additional food to students to complement the public food programme

In addition, the concession schools work with the communities they serve:

• several have an open door policy during weekends
• teacher-parent meetings are encouraged on a regular basis
• the schools work with the community through programmes to resolve family problems
• schools provide adult education

This paper uses statistical analysis to test the impact of concessions on the quality of education. It establishes that, while student outcomes are lower than results for other public schools on average, once the characteristics of the school populations are taken into account, outcomes in the concession schools are significantly higher than in public schools serving comparable populations. The report arrives at three main findings:

• dropout rates are notably lower in concession schools than in similar public schools
• other public schools nearby the concession schools have lower dropout rates in comparison with other public schools outside the area of influence
• test scores from concession schools are higher than scores in similar public schools