This fascinating volume challenges the widely held belief that the state should supply, finance and regulate schooling in developing countries. Using India as an example, Dr. Pauline Dixon examines the ways in which private, for-profit schools might serve as a successful alternative to state-run...

Education reforms that allow new educational providers to supply schooling into a state system can improve parental satisfaction and raise learning outcomes through consumer choice. Choice provides children with schooling that matches their interests. A child engaged in school is more likely to...

"This volume of essays examines the empirical evidence on school choice in different countries across Europe, North America, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It demonstrates the advantages which choice offers in different institutional contexts, whether it be Free Schools in the UK, voucher...

'Pauline Dixon has intellectual rigour and an openness to new ideas, together with compassion and practicality. A great and unusual combination which I admire enormously'. (Dame Sally Morgan, Adviser to the Board, Absolute Return for Kids and former chief advisor to Tony Blair, UK). -- 'This...

"In many developing countries, private unaided schools are serving the poor in large numbers. Some commentators view their presence as undesirable - in particular assuming that there is a conflict between 'commercial gain' and 'concern for the poor'. We show one way in which there is no conflict...

"It is the intention of government that private schools in Hyderabad are prevented by regulation from exhibiting the basic manifestations of competitive markets - low prices, innovation, good service and so on. However, private schools do, in practice, manifest these features. This paradox is...