Focus Areas
Commercial Schools
Commercial Schools are run by private actors for profit. The category of schools is very diverse including low-fee private schools and elite international schools.
Human rights and commercial schools
The Abidjan Principles are a vital tool to analyse commercial schools from a human rights perspective. The Principles explain that:
States have a duty to “provide free, public education of the highest attainable quality to everyone within their jurisdiction”.
Parents and guardians are free to choose to educate their children in private schools, and individuals and organisations are free to run such schools, “subject always to the requirement that such private educational institutions conform to standards established by the State”.
States are obligated to “take all effective measures…to ensure the realisation of the right to education where private actors are involved in the provision of education”. Thus, States must regulate private education providers.
What are some common issues with commercial schools?
Among different types of private actors involved in education, commercial schools raise specific challenges. Key challenges include:
Equity and access: Commercial schools often charge fees, limiting access for low-income families.
Profit over quality: The drive for profit can lead to cost-cutting including on teacher qualifications, undermining educational quality.
Segregation and social division: Commercial schools may increase social stratification, as families with more resources can access better educational options, while disadvantaged students are left behind in under-resourced schools.
Public system undermined: The expansion of commercial schools often relies on “poorly qualified and poorly-paid teachers to save costs” and draws attention away from public education, weakening the system that serves the majority of disadvantaged students.
Regulatory issues.
Advocacy by civil society
Since 2015, civil society groups have been mobilising to raise awareness on the impact of commercial schools. For instance, civil society shared its concerns about the World Bank Group’s investments in the expansion of fee-charging primary schools. A month before the Speech by World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim: Ending Extreme Poverty by 2030: The Final Push, several civil society organisations across the world met with senior education officials of the World Bank to discuss the rise of fee-charging, private primary schools and the World Bank Group’s support to them, in particular, Bridge International Academies (BIA).
Examples of civil society advocacy:
In 2018, civil society groups published an open letter to investors in BIA, outlining concerns and urging them to cease support.
Key Resources on Commercial Schools
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What do we really know about Bridge International Academies?
Author(s): Curtis Riep
Language(s): English
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Transparency of Private Commercial Education Providers: A Case Study of Bridge International Academies
Author(s): GI-ESCR
Language(s): English
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10 lessons learned from three recent media articles on Bridge International Academies
Author(s): GI-ESCR
Language(s): English
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Whose children go to Bridge International Academies?: A school choice for the middle class in Ijegun, Lagos
Author(s): ActionAid
Language(s): English
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Corporatised education in the Philippines: Pearson, Ayala Corporation and the emergence of Affordable Private Education Centers (APEC)
Author(s): Curtis B. Riep
Language(s): English
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From Free To Fee Are For-Profit, Fee-Charging Private Schools The Solution For The World’s Poor?
Author(s): William C. Smith and Tony Baker
Language(s): English
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Bridge VS. Reality: A study of Bridge International Academies for-profit schooling in Kenya
Author(s): Education International (EI) and Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT)
Language: English
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Schooling the poor profitably: the innovations and deprivations of Bridge International Academies in Uganda
Author(s): Curtis Riep and Mark Machacek
Language(s): English
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Low Cost Private Schools: School choice for the poor at the expense of quality?
Author(s): EACHRights
Language(s): English
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Nepal: patterns of privatisation in education. A case study of low-fee private schools and private chain schools
Author(s): Pramod Bhatta and Tejendra Pherali
Language(s): English
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Private Profit, Public Loss: why the push for low-fee private schools is throwing quality education off track
Author(s): Global Campaign for Education (GCE)
Language(s): English
