Privatization in Latin America – Examining the implications of Choice, Quality and Equity for societal development

DEMAND RATIONALITIES AND SCHOOL CHOICE IN THE CHILEAN EDUCATION SYSTEM Xavier Bonal (author-presenter), Adrián Zancajo (author-presenter) and Antoni Verger (author-non presenter). Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Market... [ view full abstract ]

DEMAND RATIONALITIES AND SCHOOL CHOICE IN THE CHILEAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

Xavier Bonal (author-presenter), Adrián Zancajo (author-presenter) and Antoni Verger (author-non presenter). Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Market advocates in education uncritically underline the benefits of a system in which the equilibrium between supply and demand ensures that citizens’ preferences in the schooling sector are met. School choice is the central market mechanism in education. Such a mechanism relies on the adaptive response that educational providers will give to the signals emanating from demand’s expression of preferences and behaviour. This paper will make use of evidence from a research project carried out in Chile between the years 2012-2015 to dismantle two main assumptions about the supposed positive effects of demand pressures in a highly marketised education system. First, our data challenges the assumed instrumental rationalities within free school choice settings, and makes the case of the multiple, diverse and even contradictory rationalities through which Chilean families approach the process of school choice. Secondly, the paper shows that rather than inducing supply behaviour, educational demand responds to the mechanisms of selection and exclusion engendered by educational providers, which is something that results in a more unequal and, to a great extent, inefficient system of educational provision.

THE EQUITY AND QUALITY IMPLICATIONS OF CHARTER SCHOOLS IN COLOMBIAN EDUCATION Antoni Verger (author-presenter), Andreu Termes (author-presenter) and Xavier Bonal (author-non presenter). Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona ... [ view full abstract ]

THE EQUITY AND QUALITY IMPLICATIONS OF CHARTER SCHOOLS IN COLOMBIAN EDUCATION

Antoni Verger (author-presenter), Andreu Termes (author-presenter) and Xavier Bonal (author-non presenter). Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Today, the Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) proposal frames education policy discussions in many different contexts. Charter schools are one of the most prominent and iconic PPP modalities in education. PPP advocates assume that charter schools favour schools' autonomy, parental participation and choice, and competition among both public and private schools. The combination of these elements (autonomy, choice and competition) would foster educational innovation, pedagogical diversity, management flexibility (in particular in human resources), and -therefore- academic excellence. But, despite its global diffusion, the evidence on the impact of charter schools is far from being conclusive, and often yields highly contradictory conclusions.
This presentation focuses on the case of the Colegios en Concesión (CEC), a paradigmatic charter school program implemented in Bogotá since 1999 to benefit students in poor areas of the city. Our presentation discusses to what extent the assumptions behind the promotion of the CEC program in Colombia are met in real situations. In particular, we will answer the following questions: Did the CEC increase the academic performance of poor students? Did the CEC contribute to enhance the diversification of the school system pedagogical models? To what extent are CEC more autonomous than regular public schools? Did the CEC program mean the transference of educational know-how? Has the CEC program been effectively controlled by the administration? Or did CEC rather promote students screening?

THE DEFAULT PRIVATIZATION OF PERUVIAN EDUCATION AND THE RISE OF LOW-FEE SCHOOLS: BETTER OR WORSE OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE POOR? Maria Balarin, PhD - Associate Researcher, Group for the Analysis of Development (GRADE) While... [ view full abstract ]

THE DEFAULT PRIVATIZATION OF PERUVIAN EDUCATION AND THE RISE OF LOW-FEE SCHOOLS: BETTER OR WORSE OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE POOR?

Maria Balarin, PhD - Associate Researcher, Group for the Analysis of Development (GRADE)

While privatization often seems to imply a direct policy intention, many low and middle income countries have experienced processes of privatization by default. While they are often enabled by generous legislation that allows or even actively seeks to promote private investment in education, processes of default privatization often take place behind the state. This has been the case in Peru, where the supply and demand for private school education, at both the primary and secondary levels, has almost doubled in the past decade, concentrating 25% of all enrollments in basic education. Many of these are low-fee private schools set up by local entrepreneurs in poor areas where the supply of public schooling is either short or it doesn't meet parents' most basic requirements. The paper explores the extremely weak regulatory framework in which the growth of private education has taken place, and then analyses the way in which a group of families from poor backgrounds in marginal areas of the city of Lima make decisions about sending their children to private schools. The paper reflects on the implications that the growth of private education has had for overall levels of educational segregation and questions the extent to which the full and unregulated private school market is capitalizing on the hopes of the poor without offering much in exchange.

Education has long been considered as central to national economic growth and societal development. Strongly humanist in its vision, the Education for All (EFA) framework centralized ideas of equity and social justice as... [ view full abstract ]

Education has long been considered as central to national economic growth and societal development. Strongly humanist in its vision, the Education for All (EFA) framework centralized ideas of equity and social justice as driving purposes for education. Yet the strong framing of education by economists has become increasingly hegemonic, in part a result of processes broadly conceived of as ‘globalisation’.

Key tenets of this reform movement have been shaped by neo-liberal theory, which argues that education systems will be more efficient and effective if they are reorganised using the principles of the free market; those of choice and competition, and publicly available performance information on quality and standards. Further, a distinct dynamic is the idea that education can best be delivered by the private sector, that education systems should operate like private-sector organisations, that private sector organisations are best placed to shape policy and practices for the sector, and that education is itself a consumer good. These assumptions not only alter the composition of which actors might operate in the sector to deliver education, or indeed which logics and associated metrics might be deployed, but what education actually means.

The symposia will present research on the education market in Chile, charter schools in Colombia and low fee private schools in Peru. Together they reflect on how different forms of the private in education alter what is at stake, for whom, and with what outcomes – on learning for sustainable futures and the consequences for individuals and societies.