Private Sector Participation In Education: Where It Occurs, And Why

The privatization of basic education is a global phenomenon, growing in all corners of the world. As a pre-cursor to a larger discussion on this issue to be featured in the 2021 GEM Report on non-state actors in education, this blog looks at its growth in different regions, why it emerged, and how it has developed.

The privatization of education has evolved differently and intensified further in some regions than in others. For instance, as the figure below shows, in Latin America the percentage of countries with more than 20% of private enrolments in primary education expanded the fastest between 1975 and 2015, whereas in Europe and in Central Asia the growth concentrated among countries with 10%-20% of private enrolment………………………………..