How Kenyan initiative helped to regain education as a public good over for-profit education in low-fee private schools

Abstract

While in the so-called Global North private education is mostly associated with elite-type schools requiring tuition fees, whereas government schools are free, the private schools' sector in many countries of the 'Global South' has experienced the expansion of a new type of private schools besides also existing denominational or elite schools: low-fee (or low-cost) private schools, often profit-oriented. These schools are provided by private enterprises – individuals or companies, including some large transnational school chains – on the financial basis of collecting rather low amounts of fees so as to attract pupils from low or lower middle-income backgrounds. Often claiming to fill a gap because of lacking governmental provisions as well as answering local demands, these schools have in the last decade come under heavy attack from a wide range of state and especially non-state organizations ranging from local to national, continental and international levels, who object such schools because they counter the very principles of national education systems which are to provide basic education for all for free, at a good quality and with equal access, if not by, then surely under the auspices of the government. Have such protest and critique which have become a major focus of concerted actions of national and international CSOs (Civil Society Organizations) been successful? The answer in the following article is: Yes, since some recent developments indicate that education has regained its logic principles. (DIPF/Orig.) ; Während im sogenannten Globalen Norden Privatschulen meist mit gebührenpflichtigen Eliteschulen in Verbindung gebracht werden und staatliche Schulen kostenlos sind, hat sich in vielen Ländern des Globalen Südens neben den bestehenden konfessionellen oder Eliteschulen ein neuer Typus von Privatschulen entwickelt: Niedrigpreis- (oder Low-Cost-)Privatschulen, die häufig gewinnorientiert sind. Diese Schulen werden von Privatunternehmen – Einzelpersonen oder Firmen, einschließlich einiger großer ...