Low-Fee Private Schools in Africa: The Dynamics of Local Education Markets in Slum Contexts

• In Event: Public-Private Partnerships Across Geographic Contexts and Their Implications for U.S. Education Reform

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals（SDGs)— adopted by the United Nations in 2015—reaffirm the importance of early childhood development (ECD). Target 4.2 states that, by 2030, the world should “ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education.” However, to this point, ECD has been given neither sufficient attention nor sufficient resources in international education development. As a result, more than 200 million children under 5 years don’t receive the foundation they need in their early years.

At the same time, research has shown that low-fee private schools (LFPSs) have grown substantially in the developing countries in recent years (Heyneman, Stern, & Smith, 2011). This is not surprising, as more students are entering school while governments are facing budget shortfalls. Although studies have begun to emerge in recent years on LFPSs, these studies focus exclusively on the primary and secondary levels of education (Day Ashley et al., 2015; Srivastava, 2013). Going forward, it is imperative that scholars address LFPSs in pre-primary contexts—not only because of the centrality of ECD to the SDGs but also because of the fervor with which LFPSs are currently being promoted at all levels as a way to increase access while also ensuring a quality education.

This paper contributes in this area through a mixed-methods study of LFPSs offering ECD in a slum of 100,000 people in Lusaka, Zambia. This study maps LFPSs in this area and looks closely at market dynamics among LFPSs and government schools, including the ways that parents, teachers, and principals interpret their options and respond to market signals. Both the research and subsequent analysis were based on theory, guided by prior identification of the issues that literature has theorized as facilitating and/or inhibiting local education markets (e.g., Day Ashley et al., 2015; Waslander, Pater, & van der Weide, 2010). Ultimately, we use the propositions of previous theoretical and empirical work to inform our analysis, but also use our findings to inform emerging theory and policy related to LFPSs in marginalized contexts.

The study’s data basis—produced during November 2016 and January 2017—is multifaceted. It contains a survey with all 62 ECD schools in the slum of focus, a survey with 200 parents, and in-depth interviews with 15 school directors/managers, 17 teachers, and 25 parents. Actors interviewed come from the only public school in the slum and 11 nearby LFPSs with ECD.

Importantly, the study places an emphasis on whether LFPSs contribute to access for the poorest sectors of society, and with what implications for the quality of the education that is available to them. In so doing, this paper offers insights that are useful within and beyond Zambia, particularly in light of the fact that many “developed” countries leave the provision of ECD to private providers. Indeed, marginalized urban families in the United States and elsewhere often must turn to low-fee or informal ECD options, in the absence of government provision.

Authors

• D. Brent Edwards Jr., University of Hawaii - Manoa

• Taeko Oktisu, Otsuma Women’s University

• Peggy Mwanza, University of Zambia