The Relative Efficiency of Private and Public Schools: The Case of Thailand

Cost-effectiveness is a key consideration in the policy debateon the appropriate role of private schools in predominantlypublic school systems. This article analyzes the relative performanceof public and private schools in Thailand in enhancing eighthgrade student scores in standardized mathematics tests, givenstudent background and school characteristics. Its main conclusionis that private schools are, on average, more effective andless costly than public schools in improving student performancein mathematics.     

An Eclectic Approach to Estimating the Determinants of Achievement in Jamaican Primary Education

This article estimates the determinants of cognitive skillsin Jamaican primary education. We take an eclectic approach,integrating the production function framework favored by economistswith the concerns of educators about pedagogical processes andthose of sociologists regarding school organization and management.At the same time, we correct for selectivity biases inducedby school choice. We use an unusually rich data set, the 1990Jamaican Survey of Living Conditions, which includes not onlyscores on cognitive achievement tests but also detailed informationon each child's household and the primary school he or she attends.We find that all three components—physical and pedagogicalinputs, pedagogical practices, and school organization and climate—influence student achievement. Our policy simulations suggestthat a focus on inputs alone may be misplaced in school systemswith input levels as high as those found in Jamaica; schoolreforms that concentrate on just a few pedagogical practicescould lead to substantial improvements in student achievement.     

THE RELATIVE EFFICIENCY OF PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Aside from revenue mobilization, one of the arguments for allowingthe private sector to assume a larger role in the provisionof education is that it would increase efficiency, as administratorsbecome more responsive to the needs of students and their parents.But what is the evidence? Based on case studies that compareprivate and public secondary education in Colombia, the DominicanRepublic, the Philippines, Tanzania, and Thailand, private schoolstudents generally outperform public school students on standardizedmath and language tests. This finding holds even after holdingconstant for the fact that, on average, private school studentsin these countries come from more advantaged backgrounds thantheir public. school counterparts. In addition, preliminaryevidence shows that the unit costs of private schools are lowerthan those of public schools. Although these results cannot,in themselves, be used as arguments for massive privatization,they indicate that governments should reconsider policies thatrestrain private sector participation in education. Furtherresearch is needed to determine whether some teaching and administrativepractices in private schools are applicable to public schools.