Public and private secondary schools in developing countries : what are the differences and why do they persist?

This paper presents the results of recent research comparing the relative effectiveness and efficiency of private and public secondary schools in five developing countries, which show a robust private school advantage in terms of student achievement and unit costs. The paper explores the effect of school-based management and autonomy and finds that principals of private schools were more likely to use their decision-making power to improve the conditions of learning in their schools. The study has important implications for public education policy, insofar as it suggests how gains in public school efficiency may be achieved by enabling public schools to adopt the management practices of private schools. It raises questions on the effectiveness, and efficiency of private schools vs. public schools, and whether such differences stem from lesser school-level management; if so, why do they persist?