The global education landscape is undergoing significant changes. These are characterized by the greater involvement of non-state actors in educational policy and provision, as well as by the growing scale of for-profit education at all levels. Under the trends of education privatization lies the assumption that the private sector can provide better quality education and, when functioning as corporate or business organizations, be more efficient also in the management of the education system. Moreover, the education decision-making process is shifting from a national to a global level. Indeed, regional and global initiatives are increasingly influencing national policies and practices, encouraging the development of for-profit private education. These dynamics enhance the adoption of free-market logics, notably those of choice, economic competition and performance. 
The spread of market approaches in the education sector poses important questions about both the organization of education systems and the purposes of education itself. Whether education is considered to be a public or private marketable good is related to two different interpretations of ‘education’ in education policy. This study aims to analyze the implications that growing for-profit private engagement in schooling has for the role of the State and for the democratic governance of education. It aims to examine complementary frameworks for the governance of education that may favor democratic participation and a humanistic approach while countering neoliberal influences in the sector.
Understanding education as a public good implies that States are responsible for protecting fundamental principles of equity, equality, social justice, and human rights, as well as regulating, financing and providing education, particularly at basic and compulsory levels. While reaffirming the primary responsibility of the State in the governance of education, understanding education as a common good also requires that the process of producing and benefitting from education is intrinsically shared. Overcoming the utilitarian tradition of “decomposable goods”, the notion of common goods suggests that education incorporates common understandings of its value, grounded in specific cultural and social backgrounds. This concept calls for the development, both at a national and at a global level, of political institutions that enable citizens to have greater voice in the decisions that affect their well-being.

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Education as a public and common good: Revisiting the role of the State in a context of growing marketization

The sociology of education is a rich interdisciplinary field that studies schools as their own social world as well as their place within the larger society. The field draws contributions from education, sociology, human development, family studies, economics, politics and public policy. Sociology of Education: An A-to-Z Guide introduces students to the social constructions of our educational systems and their many players, including students and their peers, teachers, parents, the broader community, politicians and policy makers. The roles of schools, the social processes governing schooling, and impacts on society are all critically explored. Despite an abundance of textbooks and specialized monographs, there are few up-to-date reference works in this area.

Education in Mexico

School-to-work transition data are an important component of labor market information systems (LMIS). Policy makers, researchers, and education providers benefit from knowing how long it takes work-seekers to find employment, how and where they search for employment, the quality of employment obtained, and how steady it is over time. In less-developed countries, these data are poorly collected, or not collected at all, a situation the International Labour Organization and other donors have attempted to change. However, LMIS reform efforts typically miss a critical part of the picture—the geospatial aspects of these transitions. Few LMIS systems fully consider or integrate geospatial school-to-work transition information, ignoring data critical to understanding and supporting successful and sustainable employment: employer locations; transportation infrastructure; commute time, distance, and cost; location of employment services; and other geographic barriers to employment. We provide recently collected geospatial school-to-work transition data from South Africa and Kenya to demonstrate the importance of these data and their implications for labor market and urban development policy.

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The importance of geospatial data to labor market information

This chapter examines the complex phenomenon of privatization and identifies tensions related to the difficulty in finding a shared definition of what is “public” and what is “private” in education. It provides a systematic description of how the involvement of non-state actors in education, especially at the compulsory level, has been evolving since the 1990s in different regions worldwide. This chapter further identifies some of the most significant rationales behind education privatization and investigates one particular form of education privatization which is influenced by neoliberal ideologies and market principles. It cautions against the potentially adverse impact that market approaches can have on equity and social justice, on democratic policy-making and governance, and on the societal/collective purposes of education.

A Changing Global Education Landscape: Growing Involvement of Non-State Actors

The digital divide gap remains widening as poor and rural communities continue to struggle to access and benefit from emerging technologies. However, access to digital technology has bridged physical and economic barriers in some communities by allowing access to information, which, in turn, has pushed the digital economy or Industry 4.0 (4IR) forward. Unfortunately, in African rural communities, access to digital technology is still distant. Research on rural schools indicates that the greatest portion of those living in rural areas access their internet through their mobile phones unlike in urban areas where the internet is accessed through wireless and digital subscriber lines (DSL) in addition to mobile phones. As a result, these differences have created a digital divide between urban and rural areas as well as among provinces in South Africa. Additionally, rural schools produce poor results and have poor ICT infrastructure and physical resources, and the economic status of the learners is equally a huge worry. Rural schools have challenges in accessing books and the latest learning material, affecting the quality of education. Most critically, most digital education solutions are designed and developed without the involvement of rural learners and teachers. In this study, the Eastern Cape schools in South Africa are considered. Through participatory design, including learners, teachers and key education stakeholders, a digital education portal is co-designed. Results have shown that education stakeholders are willing to participate and contribute to digital education platforms. Stakeholders would like a simple design that considers their views and input in order to easily use and benefit from the designed platform.

Co-designing an Integrated Digital Education Portal for the Eastern Cape Rural Learners

This paper was commissioned by the Global Education Monitoring Report as background information to assist in drafting the 2016 report. It has not been edited by the team. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and should not be attributed to the Global Education Monitoring Report or to UNESCO. The papers can be cited with the following reference: “Paper commissioned for the Global Education Monitoring Report 2016, Education for All 2000-2015: achievements and challenges” For further information, please contact gemreport@unesco.org. Background paper prepared for the 2016 Global Education Monitoring Report

Filiberto Viteri Chavez

Papers

Spatial mapping for improved intra-urban education planning