Public-private partnerships in education in developing countries: a rigorous review of the evidence

For all of the controversy and cacophony around public-private partnerships (PPPs) in education, we actually have very few high-quality studies that quantify their impacts. Just acknowledging and documenting that level of collective ignorance is one of the most important and refreshing aspects of this review. But the review does have substantive lessons to provide. It offers a useful typology of PPP contract structures, ranging from voucher programs to school subsidies and contract schools. And it delves deep in to the specific design features in the handful of major PPP initiatives in the developing world that have been subjected to seriously quantitative evaluation to date. There is a growing consensus in the U.S. literature that private school voucher programs have often failed to raise learning levels (Leonhardt 2016), while charter schools have a more mixed track record, with some well-documented major successes (Chabrier et al 2016). It’s too soon to say whether this generalisation applies in the countries covered here, but it is important to separate these program designs from each other, and the evidence reviewed here is (at best) probably not inconsistent with a similar pattern. This review is ultimately somewhat inconclusive; such is the nature of the evidence we have so far. But on a topic characterised by strident advocates on either side, it is refreshing to read a review focused on serious evidence and which goes beyond binary conclusions to wrestle with the complexities of this issue and the many design features that policymakers have to confront. The obvious next step is more research, mapping out the results of those various design choices, and distilling them into a coherent theory that can guide policymaking. For now, it’s time to go back to the field and get more data.