The Impact of Private Schools, School Chains and PPPs in Developing Countries - Research findings

Jul 19, 2026

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Private schools have expanded rapidly with minimal public intervention, educating large shares of primary students across urban areas in Africa and Asia. While simple comparisons of test scores suggest higher quality, the role of selection effects is unclear. This systematic review compiles over 100 studies and uses meta-analysis to estimate learning impacts of private schooling, school chains, and public-private partnerships. Results show moderately strong private-school effects that are insufficient for major learning goals, limited PPP quality gains, and minimal advantages or scale potential for chains.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages34

Reading Time1 h 26 min

Introduction

Scale of private schooling and why quality matters

Policy debate on PPPs and public subsidies

Evidence review design

Systematic review and transparent search criteria

Studies included and focus areas

Findings on learning outcomes

Private school advantage vs selection effects

Evidence from experimental and quasi-experimental studies

PPPs and school chains results

Translation to public-private partnerships

Performance and scale potential of chains

Pub lic Disclosure Authorized Pub lic Disclosure Authorized The Impact of Private Schools, School Chains and PPPs in Developing Countries Lee Crawfurd , Susannah Hares, and Rory Todd The private school sector has expanded with almost no public intervention to educate half of primary school children in many urban centers in Africa and Asia. Simple comparisons of test scores would suggest that these private schools may provide better quality than public schools, but how much of this difference is due to selection effects is unclear. Much donor and policymaker attention has proceeded on the basis that private schools do perform better, and focused on models of public subsidy to expand access, and investment in networks or chains to encourage expansion. We review the evidence of the effects of private schools on learning, and how that effect translates to public-private partnerships (PPPs) . We also study the effects of private school chains. We conduct a systematic review for eligible studies, with transparent search criteria. The search resulted in over 100 studies on low-cost private schools and PPPs, with a large majority being on low-cost private schools. Our meta-analysis shows moderately strong effects from private schooling, although the limited number of experi mental studies find much smaller effects than quasi-experimental studies. This advantage, though, is not nearly enough to help most children reach important learning goals. Turning to policy goals, we find that the private school advantage has not translated to public pri vate partnerships, which have shown limited value in improving quality. They can however represent a lower-cost means of increasing access to school. We also find that private school chains perform little better than individual private schools and have little scope for achieving meaningful scale. JEL Codes: O1, I2 Keywords: chains, developing countries, private schools, PPPs. Introduction Nearly 100 million children attend private primary schools, the majority of whom live in low-and middle-income countries. This is equivalent to 19 percent of primary school students in low-and middle-income countries. This ranges from 14 percent The World Bank Research Observer © The Author(s) 2023 . Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / THE WORLD BANK. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, [please contact journals.permissions@oup.com](please contact journals.permissions@oup.com) [https://doi.org/10.1093/wbro/lkad005](https://doi.org/10.1093/wbro/lkad005) 39:97–123 Downloaded from [https://academic.oup.com/wbro/article/39/1/97/7115930 by World Bank and IMF user on 02 February 2024](https://academic.oup.com/wbro/article/39/1/97/7115930 by World Bank and IMF user on 02 February 2024) in sub-Saharan Africa and 19 percent in Latin America, to 38 percent in South Asia (up from under 20 percent in 2000) .1 In many major cities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, over half of children in primary school attend a private school. Enrolment in private schools is typically even higher at preschool (41 percent of enrolment in lowand middle-income countries) and secondary school (28 percent of enrolment). Since large shares of children now attend private schools, it is important to understand their quality. This also makes more salient the question of whether governments can and should use the private sector to deliver publicly-financed education. Public funding for places in existing private schools may in some cases be a viable strategy to rapidly expand access at lower cost than through the public sec

FAQs

How do private schools in developing countries compare with public schools in learning outcomes?

The review finds a positive, moderately large advantage for private schooling. After accounting for unobserved factors via randomization, the gap decreases sharply.

What does the evidence say about selection effects and study design?

The meta-analysis indicates moderately strong effects overall, but experimental studies show much smaller effects than quasi-experimental studies.

Do public-private partnerships (PPPs) improve education quality using private schools?

The private-school advantage does not translate into meaningful improvements in PPPs, which show limited value for quality gains. PPPs can, however, expand access at lower cost.

Jul 19, 2026

Upload by Finn