A transitional solution: private kindergarten education funding in developing countries where birth rates are decreasing

• In Event: Sociology of Education Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 6. Familial Investments in Schooling

Abstract

Examining funding for education has been one of the key topics among social scientist for decades. Many Neo-liberal economists believe that education needs to be denationalised and funded by those who benefited from education. However, what Neo-liberalists omit to consider is the influence of social environment. Decreasing birth rate, due to factors including rising family educational level, living costs, and quality senior care, becomes unprecedented social problems among many developing countries. One of the concerns then revolves around who should fund education because maintaining schools with few students can be inefficient, while, if schools close down extensively and promptly, unemployed teachers become sources of social instability. The closing of kindergartens has been witnessed among many developing countries and the closure of primary, secondary, and even tertiary schools can be expected. Therefore, a new payment scheme can act as a transitional solution or reference to support developing countries experiencing decreasing birth rate. This article concentrates on private kindergarten education because their relatively flexible tuition fees policies and sometimes required entry exams and/or interviews. The article explores how neoliberal economic practices, sociological positive and negative selection theories as well as related empirical evidences from developing countries can be integrated to develop a tiered payment system for developing countries. To illustrate, private kindergartens’ tuition fees can be borne by attendees’ families and in line with family income and performance of entry tests as well as interview results. The marked-up tuition fee by the certain group of attendees can act as the main funder of private kindergartens to survive in a short term before more evidence-informed policy are implemented for structural education payment reform. Changes require time and this paper aim to raise the awareness of the influence of the social environment on education and the importance of experiential knowledge.

Author

• Jia Z Wang, University College London