UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report warns of growing inequality and exclusion due to high costs of private education and weak regulation by states.  It advocates five measures to ensure the provision of quality education for all.

40% of pre-primary pupils, 20% of primary pupils and 30% of secondary and tertiary students are now educated in non-state schools worldwide. However, UNESCO’s new Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report shows that many countries lack adequate regulations on private education or the capacity to enforce them, undermining quality and potentially widening the educational divide between rich and poor.

The Report analyses non-state actors across all education systems, ranging from schools run by faith-based organizations, NGOs, philanthropies and for-profit commercial entities, to all those involved in the provision of services to the education sector. Many countries let these schools, most of them not registered, operate without any oversight.

It reveals that only 27% of countries explicitly prohibit profit making in primary and secondary schools, which runs counter to the vision of 12 years of free education for all. Over half of countries prevent student admission procedures in schools. Only 7% of countries have quotas that enhance access to schools for disadvantaged students through initiatives. Only half have regulations on private tuition.

Consequently, households in least developed countries spend a disproportionate amount of their income on educating their children. Households account for 39% of education expenditure in low- and lower-middle-income countries compared to 16% in high income countries. 

The Report, entitled Who Chooses? Who Loses?, demonstrates that, at the same time, public education in low-income countries comes with considerable hidden costs. Analysis of 15 low and middle-income countries shows, for example, that school uniforms and supplies accounted for almost two-fifths of households’ educational expenditure.

This requires 8% of families in low- and middle-income countries to borrow money to pay for their children to go to school.