Responding to The Economist’s articles in support of private education: 7 letters from academics and NGOs

The 1st August 2015 edition of British weekly newspaperThe Economist published two articles on the growth of private education in developing countries: “Learning Unleashed” and “The $1-a-week school”. The articles purport the alleged benefits of the low-fee private school model. Both pieces came strongly in favour of private education, calling on governments to either help private schools or “get out of their way”. The articles generated a number of responses from organisations and individuals across the globe. A selection of these was published in the 22nd August edition’s Letters section, both in print and online, but not all responses were included.

Together with other organisations, we put together a short document collating the brief responses submitted to The Economist, including several that were not published. The document is available here http://bit.ly/1VX9LuW

It includes contributions from David Archer (ActionAid), Mark Goldring (Oxfam), Hugh McLean (Open Society foundation), Angelo Gavrielatos (Education International), Prachi Srivastava (University of Ottawa), Steven Klees (University of Maryland), and Sylvain Aubry (Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights).

Update from GenevaGuest User14 September 2015Private actors & public services