Is the non-state education sector serving the needs of the poor? Evidence from East and Southern Africa

Is the non-state education sector serving the needs of the poor? Evidence from East and Southern Africa

Published Jan 2002

Author

P. Rose

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The growing role of private and NGO schools in Africa

This paper, written for a Department for International Development (DFID) seminar in preparation for the 2004 World Development Report, explores the evidence on non-state provision of education in East and Southern Africa. It examines the reasons for, and implications of, changes in non-state sector provision, focusing on sub-Saharan African countries which are furthest from achieving the Millennium Development Goals and on the implications for the poor. It also reflects on the desirability and feasibility of further development of non-state sector involvement in education.

It reports that, according to internationally available data, there is wide variation in private school enrolment, and the proportion of total enrolment represented by the private sector seems to have grown in some countries during the 1990s but declined in others. However, there is evidence from individual country reports that the sector has expanded.

The paper explains that the drive for Education for All has placed emphasis on the expansion of basic education, often with implications for the quality of education provided by the state sector, as well as putting pressure on other levels of the education system. As a result, the non-state sector has grown rapidly in some areas to fill the gap, although institutions are often unregistered and unregulated. Legislation and regulation on the non-state sector are in many countries recent and still poorly developed, and the paper argues that this has resulted in low quality private provision in some cases.

The paper concludes that claims about non-state provision serving the needs of the poor need to be treated with caution. The expanded role of the non-state sector has in many cases been by default rather than design, and there is little evidence that the private sector can provide better quality education at lower cost. It argues that:

  • community involvement might be desirable, but should not be used to abdicate the responsibility of the state in providing education for the poor.
  • the non-state sector should not be seen as an alternative to the state’s role in providing for social needs.
  • there is a need to strengthen the role of the state in financing, provision, and regulation, if the poor are to have access to schooling of acceptable quality at different levels, and be protected from low quality private provision.

[adapted from author]

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