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The article deals with competition between primary schools in Berlin. The focus is on the perception of competition and the process of student selection – despite school law restrictions for primary state schools. The aim is to find out whether and in what way primary school leaders perceive a competitive situation and how they act in view of second-order competition.

Berlin primary school leaders' statements were analyzed, which were collected and evaluated using quantitative and qualitative methods.

Results show that schools with a good reputation are more likely to benefit from competition because a good reputation may increase the demand for spots at that school and may enable the school to select “desirable” students. State school leaders are more limited in their actions, while private school principals are more autonomous and are better able to make a match between a school's orientation and families' ideas.

The study is limited by its small sample size, yet it provides a basis for further research and gives much needed attention to selection processes at primary schools in Germany.

This is one of a few studies looking at the perspectives of primary school leaders regarding the competitive situation and in particular the selection of students.

This paper is a historical review of the development of private primary and secondary education in Hong Kong from 1841-2012. The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolving relationship between the state and private schools in Hong Kong.

This paper utilizes sources from published official documents, public data available on government websites, archival documents and newspapers. The authors also carried out a few individual interviews with legislators, government officials and principals who were familiar with the history of private education in Hong Kong.

The colonial Hong Kong Government adopted laissez-faire policy in greater part of its rule until 1970s. The year 1978 marked the period of “state control” until the 1990s when privatization and deregulation emerged as a world trend in the governance of education. The role of government changed to that of “supervision” instead of “control.” Further, it is shown that the change of sovereignty did not avert the trend of decentralization, deregulation and privatization in education which is entrenched in the management of public affairs in human societies.

The findings provides an illuminating look into the development of a society and how it grapples with the fundamental questions of the degree of social control and proper use of political power in a colonial setting.

This paper examines the location choice of families when education is available through local public schools and private schools. According to the theoretical model, families who use public schools sort into communities that offer their desired education quality. Families who choose private schools, on the other hand, locate in communities with low quality public schools because of the low cost of occupying a standardized unit of housing in such areas. This difference in sorting causes the income and rent differentials across communities to be lower when private education is available. A multinomial logit model is estimated to test whether the factors that influence community choice vary between families that use public and private schools. The results indicate little difference with respect to public school quality but a difference with respect to distance from the central business district (CBD). In this sample, it appears that families who use public schools are more likely to locate further from the CDB as income rises compared to families that choose private schools.

This study aims to examine managerial behaviour and corporate social responsibilities of private education providers at the primary education level with a view to establishing the fact that it is indeed the obligatory adoption of ethical policies and socially responsible behaviour that accounts for the positive impact some private education operators have made in the educational sector. The study also examines the areas where the private education providers have not been accountable in their business models, decision-making and operations and thus suggests ways that the private education providers can collaborate with other stakeholders to bring about transformation and better educational outcomes.

The positive image of the corporate, social and environmental performance of any organisation to a very large extent is critical to the success of the organization. To underscore the need for managers to be more responsive to the effect their business policies and operations have on the society, this study examined the managerial behaviour and corporate social responsibility (CSR) of private education providers in Nigeria, especially at the primary level – the foundation of the educational system all over the world. The study adopted a mixed method for data collection, involving a survey and focus group discussion. Simple random sampling and purposive sampling were used, respectively, to select the final sample size of respondents made up of stakeholders of private schools – parents, teachers, school proprietors and officials of the Ministry of Education. The multiple regression procedure on Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 20 was used to analyse data from the survey, whereas ethnographic content analysis was used to analyse data from focus group discussion. While it is evident that most parents and guardian in the global community are choosing the private schools over the public schools because of their perceived accountability or social responsibility that ensures academic success, findings from the study of private schools, especially in the developing countries show that some private education providers fall short in responsible managerial behaviour and corporate responsibility. Socially responsible managerial behaviour has been found to be a deliberate choice which business-savvy managers make and use to gain competitive advantage and secure their businesses.

Based on the hypothesis testing, the calculated value of the independent variable on the dependent variable is significant because the probability is less than 0.05 (p < 0.05). The variables under consideration – the obligation to deliver quality education (independent variable) correlated significantly with the dependent variable, the establishment of private schools. Thus, the finding shows that the obligation to deliver quality education and services led to the establishment of private schools. Also, results from the focus group discussion show that the motivation for establishing a school for some private school operators is basically borne out of the need to make a positive impact on society by bringing about positive changes in the educational system.

A major limitation of the study is the dearth of literature in this area of study – corporate social responsibility in private school. There is a dearth of research in this area because of the perception that private schools or educational entrepreneurs are exploitative (Mars and Ginter, 2012; Paul, 2012). Hence, the study adopted an exploratory approach.

The practical implication of the study borders on the need for private school managers and operators to collaborate with stakeholder groups – parents, teachers, the government and its regulatory body – the Ministry of Education for better educational outcomes.

The social implication of the study is the need for managers and operators of private schools to deliver cost-effective education so that it can be fairly accessible to a higher percentage of the populace of pupils rather than just a privileged few. This will go a long a to reducing the social inequality among pupils, as a greater population of pupils in Nigeria and many other developing countries are in dilapidated public schools where little or no teaching and learning activities take place.

This study makes an original contribution to the literature on managerial behaviour and CSR as a strategy for making a positive impact on the stakeholders of an organization/institution as the case may be, increasing business performance and having a competitive advantage. Managerial behaviour and CSR in educational institutions, especially private educational institutions is an area that is scarcely studied and thus, there is a dearth of literature in this area (Mars and Ginter, 2012; Paul, 2012). The present study focuses on managerial behaviour of private primary education providers and operators and this because all over the world, the primary education is the basic and the most vulnerable of all the levels in the educational system.

This paper is an effort to identify the difference between government and private primary schools in terms of physical infrastructure, schooling costs and student's performance. Further, the paper assessed the role of physical infrastructure and schooling costs on the performance of students. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study used India Human Development Survey (IHDS) data. Bivariate, trivariate, χ2 and ANOVA test, factor analyses and Theil index are used as methods of analyses.

The results present a distinct picture of government and private primary school education in India in terms of physical infrastructure standards, schooling cost and performance of students. In all the three selected indicators, private primary schools remained a forerunner or outperform the government primary schools in India. Besides this, the physical infrastructure and schooling cost found to have effect on performance of students both in private and public schools.

Since government primary schools hold more than 70 percent of total students, there is an urgent need to improve the standards of primary education in these schools. Further, efforts are needed to reduce the gaps between private and public schools in terms of its basic physical facilities and performance of students in the country.

The paper used the IHDS to examine the existing differentials between government and private primary schools. The analysis is purely an original work.

Over the past decades, there has been an intensifying movement to privatize education in Western nations, with equal concern about the quality of education for all. This article adds to a global understanding of school inspections as a governance mechanism to promote educational quality in an entirely open K-12 educational marketplace.

The role of school inspections as a quality assurance device is examined from a market accountability perspective. The Emirate of Dubai is used as an illustrative example of market accountability, where the educational landscape constitutes primarily a private open market.

Dubai proves that market accountability can address the needs of all families, assuring the provision of a sufficient quality standard of education, while allowing for competition to drive improvement. There are two lessons that Dubai offers a global audience that has been debating the merits of privatizing education: a fully free unregulated market does not promote an education system that provides a minimum standard of education for all; and a private education system can address stakeholder concerns and operate successfully in parallel to a public sector.

The idiosyncratic United Arab Emirates (UAE) education sector calls for a balance between flexibility and quality assurance across semi-independent jurisdictions. Hosting a majority of non-Emirati resident families, Dubai has developed a public inspection system for a private education market for quality assurance across 17 curricula offered in 215 private schools with diverse profit models. That most Dubai school-aged children are in private schools demanded accommodating an atypical landscape for K-12 education that affords insights into how a free market can operate. The authors encourage future research that may build a more comprehensive framework for better understanding the public–private education debate.

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the learning gap between private and public school children in primary school, and ascertain the part of the private–public school learning gap that is due to differences in observables and the part that can be attributed to private school effect.

The paper utilized a household survey data from Ghana that assessed children on numeracy and literacy in both English and local languages. The primary methodology for this study is non-linear Oaxaca decomposition. The study also utilized Welch's t-statistics to test if there are any differences in the private–public school learning gaps across several sub-groups.

Findings from this study show a substantial gain for private school attendance on both numeracy and literacy. The results show that a little over 60% of the total learning gap in numeracy and literacy in English is explained by observable characteristics. However, observable characteristics almost explain all the learning gaps in the reading and writing of local languages. Evidence from the study suggests that the private school effect is homogeneous across several sub-groups. The results reveal years of education, expenditure on extra classes, religion and urbanicity as the most important variables explaining the gap that is caused by differences in observables.

Despite the belief that private school children in Ghana have better learning outcomes, there has not been any study to quantify this learning gap in the country and this study fills this gap. While there is literature on the differences in the learning outcomes between public and private schools, those studies have focused on the differences that are attributable to the private school effect. This article does not only present the differences in the learning outcomes but also shows the proportion that is due to observable characteristics and the part that can be attributed to the private school effect.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the current contributions of private schools to education provision in Tanzania, and to consider the feasibility of a school voucher program to contribute to the expansion of the secondary school system, compared to the alternative expansion of public secondary education.

The study offers an analysis of current educational circumstances and educational goals in Tanzania, and projects differential costs and outcomes associated with various options for expanding secondary education. Data come from two sources: a census of the private schooling market in the Morogoro Urban district, conducted as part of the World Bank’s Systems Approach for Better Education Results initiative; and Tanzania’s National Panel Survey 2010–2011.

For those students unable to cover the full cost of secondary education, findings suggest that a targeted private school voucher would be an efficient and equitable policy mechanism for secondary school expansion. Such an approach would ease the financial burden on government for constructing all new schools, yet assure access for the most vulnerable.

The implementation of school voucher programs is increasing in low-income countries. It is important for policy makers to carefully consider the appropriateness of this type of policy intervention for their particular educational contexts. This paper models an approach by which researchers and policymakers can assess the educational circumstances of a particular location, and determine the potential effectiveness of a private school voucher policy.

While privatisation in education is expanding, the number of children transferring from public to private schools seeking high-quality education has increased. This study examined equality of educational opportunity, focussing on the attributes of individual children and their familial backgrounds. The target country is Nepal, which has been facing an educational disparity problem between public and private schools.

This study performed a logistic regression analysis with the objective variable as the binary capability to attend a private school and analysed the differences between children who attended public versus private schools. Semi-structured interviews with subjects and teachers and home-visit surveys were conducted to collect and confirm data.

This study revealed that particular children were excluded from seeking high-quality education in form of attending private schools. These children's characteristics correspond to lower economic status, illiterate mothers, being only children and female. Moreover, the study observed changes in awareness due to the modernisation and globalisation of Nepali society and growing enthusiasm for education, amongst others.

Research on privatisation and access to quality education, which has attracted scholarly attention in recent years, requires a broader scope regarding target countries and more in-depth analyses. This study focussed on Nepal since, in the country, the phenomenon of children leaving public for private schools is prominent and little research has been conducted on this context. Additionally, since the study gathered extensive data on individual children and did not rely on secondary data, it was possible to perform an in-depth analysis and accurately portray the real situation faced by Nepali children.

This article considers the arguments used in support of private‐sector educational establishments in post‐Communist Europe and compares them with the observations and experiences of an academic librarian working in the field. The article uses as its case study a private‐sector university in Slovakia and addresses the issues of quality and standards in evidence today. Reasons for the rapid growth of private‐sector establishments across the region are initially studied before the frequent arguments used in support of private‐sector enterprises are considered. The article goes on to examine the wider implications of the growth of the private sector for the societies of post‐Communist Europe.