One means of regulating the private education sector is to increase the consumers’ access to information. Currently there is very limited information available on quality upon which decisions can be based yet this would seem to be an important pre-requisite to the smooth operation of the decentralised education sector. Better information for consumers is likely to be of benefit given the potential for wide variations in price and quality across the public and private schools and Colleges.
Measures to improve the information could include:
- Requiring that all institutions disclose information on fees that they have received;
- Maintaining a central directory of public and private institutions that records this demand-side information;
- Recording and sharing this information on public and private school performance on a common Education Management Information System (EMIS); and
- Analysing this information to see how it impacts upon the access, quality and equity targets set under the governments’ national education plans.
Michael Latham, Guest Commentator
Principal International Consultant, CfBT Education Trust
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