Privatisation of education

• Privatisation

  • Refers to the transfer of industries or services previously owned by the state to ownership by private businesses, who run them to make a profit.
  • Increases competition and makes schools more responsive which raises educational standards.
• Ball and Youdell's 2 types of privatisation in education

  1. Privatisation IN education - endogenous
  2. Privatisation OF education - exogenous
• Privatisation in education - endogenous

  • This is an internal market within the state education system.
  • It brings ideas into school.
  • Involves importing ideas and techniques from the private sector in order to make the public sector more business-like (marketisation).
  • Values competition between schools for students, performance related pay for teachers, parental choice, league tables, inspections.
• Privatisation of schools - exogenous

  • This includes schools doing deals with companies ie. logos and branding (for example, catering companies).
  • The state ceases to be the actual provider of educational services, instead this rapidly growing form of privatisation involves both UK and international companies taking over things like:
  • Building and maintaining school services.
  • The expansion of the education services industry
  • Running the examination system
• Building and maintaining school services

  • Staff training, building maintained, school transport, cleaning, payroll.
  • Ball says that these make a huge amount of profit for the companies involved, but local authority councils have no choice because of the lack of government spending in education.
• The expansion of the education services industry

  • This includes the branding of schools.
  • Private companies selling to schools website construction, logo development and prospect designs to give the school a distinct identity enabling them to compete in the education marketplace
• Running the examination system

  • The UKs largest examinations body Edexcel is run by the global corporation Pearsons.
  • Pearsons runs exam boards, sets exams, pays the examiners, runs training courses which teachers must attend to understand the course, writes textbooks.
• The 'cola-isation of schools

  • According to studies by Molnar, schools are increasingly being targeted by private companies because by natures, schools carry enormous good will and can confer legitimacy on anything associated with them.
  • This process has often be called 'colaisation' as the private sectors penetrated education indirectly through sponsoring, logos and vending machines.
• Support of privatisation

  • Gives parents more choice and created more diverse options for education
  • Private companies are used to keep costs down.
  • Private companies will run certain aspects of the education system more effectively than local authorities.
  • Win win situation for education and businesses.
  • Increased competition drives up standards.
  • Nw right argue state-run education is inefficient.
• Criticisms of privatisation

  • No guarantee any profit made will go back to the school, it could go to shareholders.
  • Private companies may change the type of knowledge which pupils are taught ie. more of an emphasis on maths and less of an emphasis on humanity subjects as they are less profitable.
  • Increasing inequality as private companies cherry pick the best schools to take over and leave the worst schools under local education authority.
  • Criticised by marxists