The Low-Fee Private Schools (LFPS) sector is globally contested. The debate takes place at the academic and policy levels and calls into question the ethics of deriving a profit from a public good. Several theoretical constructs in educational privatization have informed the debate. These include contract failure, transaction costs, moral hazard, and the obsolescing bargain. Yet, the debate does not acknowledge LFPS types. To this end, the dissertation examined the histories and pathways of different types of LFPS, presented a typology, and investigated to what extent the numerous types of LFPS varied in terms of delivering access, equity, and quality of education.
The theoretical framework framing this dissertation was centered on the six pathways to privatization. A case study design was applied to conduct exploratory, inductive research in two research sites—low-income and mixed-income neighborhoods in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. I first implemented a multi-tiered sampling strategy to identify LFPS. This involved conducting on-site school mapping to locate 87 educational institutions, including unregistered LFPS, in the research sites. I then identified 26 LFPS by forwarding a definition of LFPS in Pakistan and assessing which private educational institutions met the parameters of an LFPS. Among other elements, LFPS were defined as private educational institutions that charged a maximum of 24 USD a month in school fees. The data for the dissertation included site visits to, and surveys at 17 LFPS, 45 interviews at the school level, with Rawalpindi educational authority representatives as well as a multilateral agency. Finally, I reviewed 19,320 Facebook pictures uploaded by LFPS, and visually analyzed 1,343 to triangulate claims made in the surveys and interviews.
Through this research design, LFPS that were differentiated on the parameters of structure—whether LFPS are part of nation-wide chains or independent entities that have a legacy rooted in the country’s colonial history—and fee range. I found six different types of LFPS: Cheap, Medium-range and Costly Independent LFPS and Cheap, Medium-range and Costly Chain LFPS. The established typology is generalizable to urban areas in Pakistan. An analysis of the histories and pathways of the identified LFPS further revealed that there was a proliferation of LFPS starting in 2004, particularly during two periods—2004 to 2007 and 2015 to 2019—under a supportive enabling environment. Chain LFPS types are competitors to Independent LFPS types in contexts in which they are able to proliferate, such as the mixed-income neighborhoods, where no Independent LFPS has been established since 2017. Path six—De facto privatization in low-income countries—was found to be applicable to Pakistan as the government did not patronize sectoral expansion, and until recently, did not undertake efforts to regulate it.
Despite sectoral expansion in recent decades, a trade-off in access, equity, and quality of education at the different types of LFPS was found. If an LFPS enhances access and equity, which was found at Cheap Chain LFPS and Medium-range Chain LFPS, it comes at the expense of quality of education. If an LFPS delivers strongly on educational quality, which is the case as Medium-range and Costly Independent LFPS, it comes at the expense of quality of education.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:columbia.edu/oai:academiccommons.columbia.edu:10.7916/qnby-dj13 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Bajwa, Wajeeha |
| Source Sets | Columbia University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Theses |
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