low-fee private schooling
Ongoing research interest and line of inquiry
Some work was funded by a fellowship from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (GBP 28,500) and from SSHRC Insight Grant
Some work was funded by a fellowship from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (GBP 28,500) and from SSHRC Insight Grant
the debate in a nutshellThe emergence of low-fee private schools in developing countries has led to a polarised debate in the literature in view of the right to education and acknowledged shortfalls in education quality. Proponents argue that low-fee private schools are more efficient and of better quality than state schools, the most extreme, calling for the state’s retreat in provision. Many others argue that the right to education confers the ultimate responsibility for education for all on the state, with the imperative to increase access and quality.
A low-fee private school in rural Lucknow District, Uttar Pradesh
research work & InsightsHer work on low-fee private schooling in Lucknow District led to a number of insights at the household, school, and institutional levels of inquiry.
Extending concepts from new institutional economic theory and organisational sociology, new ideas were developed to provide a much-needed theoretical orientation to conceptualise the newly emerging low-fee private sector and the process of sector formation and its operation. Findings showed that low-fee private schools operated in an amorphous policy space following 'shadow institutional framework' or a set of shadow institutions comprised of informal norms and practices often in contravention of the official regulatory framework, and many times with the active participation of key institutional actors. New ideas were further developed to conceptualise ‘active choice’ by disadvantaged parents in the study that were framed in a paradigm refuting ideas of ‘false consciousness’, and challenged popular notions in existing literature about the schooling decisions of poor parents in developing countries. Srivastava's work showed that while low-fee private schools may allow some lower socio-economic groups access, they also seemed to contribute to a schooling arena further segmented by social class, and that the corrupt practices, which low-fee private schools often relied on for official recognition by government departments of education, raise serious questions about their quality. |
in the beginningThe term, ‘low-fee private schools’, now enjoys popular usage in the literature to examine such schools across countries as diverse as Ghana, India Nigeria, Kenya, Pakistan, and Uganda, among others. However, when Dr. Srivastava first began research on the topic in 2001 on Uttar Pradesh, India, no such term existed to refer to these schools, which were anecdotally referred to as 'budget schools', 'private schools for the poor', or 'teaching shops'. Further, since many of these schools occupy a part of the private sector that is not officially recognised in many countries, no official definitions existed. She thus coined the term, and operationalised these schools as independent private unaided schools charging a maximum monthly fee of about one day's wages of a daily wage labourer at the elementary level.
and nowDr. Srivastava maintains an active interest in research on low-fee private schooling in South Asia and parts of Africa. Since her early research on the topic, she has worked to help consolidate this as a sub-field of research activity in the wider literature on the privatisation of schooling by undertaking such activities as publishing an edited volume on new research evidence on low-fee private schooling across five countries (Symposium Books, 2013); convening a research panel on low-fee private schooling at the 2010 WCCES conference in Istanbul; publishing numerous articles and book chapters; and delivering a number of conference presentations and invited talks to agencies on the issue. She has been consulted by UNESCO, CIDA, Save the Children (UK), the Government of India, ARK International among a number of other organisations on the topic. Researchers and students conducting work on low-fee private schooling are encouraged to contact her.
An urban low-fee private school in Lucknow
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research output
Publications and Public Engagement
Srivastava, P., 'Questioning the global scaling-up of low-fee private schooling: the nexus between business, philanthropy, and PPPs', in A. Verger, C. Lubienski, and G. Steiner-Khamsi, (Eds.), The World Yearbook of Education 2016: the global education industry. New York, Routledge, 2016.
Srivastava, P., Private or Public: Does the proliferation of low-fee/low-cost private schools improve or impede learning for all? Debate for UNESCO IIEP Learning Portal, August 2016, electronic document and audio file.
Srivastava, P., Low-fee private schools and poor children: what do we really know? The Guardian, 12 August 2015, electronic document.
Srivastava, P., Low-fee private schooling: what do we really know? From Poverty to Power, Oxfam blog, 11 August 2015, electronic document.
Srivastava, P., Why private investors, governments, and aid agencies should rethink their strategies. Quality Education for All: are low-cost private schools the answer? EduDebate, WISE ed.review, Qatar Foundation, April 2014, electronic document.
Srivastava, P. (Ed.) Low-fee Private Schooling: aggravating equity or mitigating disadvantage? (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2013)
Srivastava, P., ‘Low-fee private schooling: issues and evidence’, in P. Srivastava (Ed.), Low-fee Private Schooling: aggravating equity or mitigating disadvantage? Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2013). Download here.
Srivastava, P., Noronha, C., & Fennell, S., Private sector study: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Report submitted to DFID (India), 2013, pp. 66. Download here.
Srivastava, P., ‘School choice in India: disadvantaged groups and low-fee private schools’, in M. Forsey, S. Davies, and G. Walford (Eds.), The Globalization of School Choice?, (pp. 185-208). Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2008). View abstract.
Srivastava, P., The shadow institutional framework: towards a new institutional understanding of an emerging model of private schooling in India. Research Papers in Education. 23(4): 451-475, 2008. Link to article.
Srivastava, P., ‘For philanthropy or profit?: the management and operation of low-fee private schools in India?’, in P. Srivastava and G. Walford (Eds.) Private Schooling in Less Economically Developed Countries: Asian and African perspectives, (pp. 153-186). Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2007) View abstract.
Srivastava, P., ‘Low-fee private schooling: challenging an era of Education for All and quality provision?’, in G. Verma, C. Bagley, & M. M. Jha (Eds.), International Perspectives on Educational Diversity and Inclusion: studies from America, Europe and India, (pp. 138-161.) (Routledge, New York, 2007). View excerpt.
Srivastava, P. Neither voice nor loyalty: school choice and the low-fee private sector in India. Research Publications Series, Occasional Paper No. 134. National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, Columbia University, New York, 2007, pp. 46.
Srivastava, P., Low-fee private schooling for disadvantaged girls in India. ID21 Education, Research Highlight. Institute of Development Studies, UK, 2007, electronic document.
Srivastava, P., Private schooling and mental models about girls’ schooling in India. Compare. 36(4): 497-514, 2006. View abstract.
Srivastava, P. Disadvantaged groups and the private sector: challenges to and implications for Indian education policy. A report for the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, and for the Department of Secondary Education, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India. Department of Educational Studies, University of Oxford, 2006, pp. 75.
Srivastava, P., Why is schooling failing in the 'new' India? Open University-BBC open2.net, International Development. Milton Keynes, Open University, UK, 2006, electronic document.
Srivastava, P., A household, school and state level analysis of the implications of low-fee charging private schools for socially and economically disadvantaged groups in India. Report for the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, New Delhi, 2003.
Invited Talks and Presentations
Are Low-cost Private Schools Helping Achieve Quality Education for All in Africa?, Smackdown Debate, Africa Knowledge Fest 2017, World Bank, Washington, DC, 22 February 2017.
'New Global Philanthropy and the Second Wave of the Low-fee Private Sector.' Roundtable,The Global Education Industry: Philanthropy, business, and the changing role of government. World Social Forum, Montreal, 10 August 2016.
'Does the UK Government Believe in Evidence-based Policy? Evidence on Low-fee Private Schooling.' Invited presentation to give evidence to the UK Government All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Education For All, 'A discussion on donor support to low-cost private schools to provide inclusive, equitable and quality education for all in developing countries'. Westminster Palace, London, 21 October 2015.
'Morphing the Market: the second wave of the low-fee private sector.' Keynote address, 7th World Congress on Education, Education International, Ottawa, 19-26 July 2015.
'Global evidence on low-fee private schooling: affordability, quality, equity?' Invited lecture, TISS-Azim Premji University-King’s College London Summer School on ‘Changing Nature of the Public and Private in School Education’, Azim Premji University, Bengalaru, 15 June 2015 [pre-recorded session].
'Non-state actors in education: examining the evidence.' Debate on the Appropriate Role for Non-State Actors Engagement in Education, Research Policy Symposium, Center for Universal Education, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., 5-6 March 2015.
'Quality Education for All: are low-cost private schools the answer?' Invited debate presentation, 2014 World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), Doha, Qatar, 4-6 November 2014. View debate highlights here.
'Early childhood development: is the private sector the answer for developing countries?' Invited seminar webcast, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University, 30 October 2014.
'Global evidence on low-fee private schooling: affordability, quality, and equity?' The Impact of Privatization/Marketization on the Education of Disadvantaged Students’ Conference, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 3-4 October 2013.
'Private education in the context of development.' Strategic Policy and Performance Branch, Canadian International Development Agency, Ottawa, 7 November 2011.
'Shadow frameworks: a new institutional perspective on education policy and practice in India.' Research Colloquium, Humboldt University, Berlin, 14 May 2009.
'Low-fee private schooling: understanding its potential impact on institutional processes and governance in the context of EFA.' 2009 Education for All Global Monitoring Report Planning Meeting, UNESCO, Paris, 10 October 2007.
'The private schooling paradox in an era of "Education for All": an Indian case study.' The Globalization of School Choice: an international research symposium, University of Western Australia, Perth, 12-14 December 2006.
'Privatisation and changing attitudes about girls’ schooling in India.' Comparative Education Seminars: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Education in South Asia, St Antony's College, University of Oxford, Oxford, 31 January 2006.
Conference Papers
Srivastava, P., The second wave of the low-fee private sector: corporate-backed chains in the Global South. Paper presented at the 13th UKFIET International Conference on Education and Development, Oxford, 15-17 September 2015. [TBD]
Srivastava, P., On the 'low-ness' of fees: questioning assumptions of affordability in the low-fee private sector. Pop-up talk, 13th UKFIET International Conference on Education and Development, Oxford, 15-17 September 2015. [TBD]
Srivastava, P., The global scaling-up of low-fee private schooling: the nexus between business, philanthropy, and PPPs. 59th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society, Washington, D.C., USA, 8-13 March 2015.
Srivastava, P., Contradictions and the persistence of the mobilizing frames of privatization: interrogating the global evidence on low-fee private schooling. Paper presented at the 58th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society, Toronto, 10-15 March 2014.
Srivastava, P. Low-fee private schooling: aggravating equity or mediating disadvantage? Research panel, XIV World Congress of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies, Istanbul, 14-18 June 2010.
Srivastava, P. Choosing private: girls’ schooling in India. Paper presented at the 2007 American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Chicago, 9-13 April 2007.
Srivastava, P., Challenging the State?: quality, EFA, and the low-fee private sector in India. Paper presented at the 2006 American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, San Francisco, 7-11 April 2006.
Srivastava, P., Private schooling mediating gender bias?: changing mental models about girls’ schooling in India. Paper presented at the 50th Celebration Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society, Honolulu, 14-18 March 2006.
Srivastava, P., The best of the bunch?: questioning the relative quality of the state and low-fee private sectors in India. Paper presented at the 8th UKFIET International Conference on Education and Development, Oxford, 13-15 September 2005.
Srivastava, P., The shadow institutional framework: a new institutional analysis of the low-fee private sector in India. Paper presented at the 2005 American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Montreal, 11-15 April 2005.
Srivastava, P., Altering the framework of education for disadvantaged groups: the low-fee private sector in India. Paper presented at the XIIth World Congress of Comparative Education Societies, Havana, 25-29 October 2004.
Srivastava, P., Tipping the balance?: disadvantaged households’ engagement strategies in LFP schooling in India. Paper presented at the Globalisation and Inclusion Conference, University College Cork, Cork, 31 May-1 June 2004.
Srivastava, P., Low-fee private schools for disadvantaged groups in India: implications for educational equity policy. Paper presented at the 2004 American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, San Diego, 12-16 April 2004.
Srivastava, P., 'Questioning the global scaling-up of low-fee private schooling: the nexus between business, philanthropy, and PPPs', in A. Verger, C. Lubienski, and G. Steiner-Khamsi, (Eds.), The World Yearbook of Education 2016: the global education industry. New York, Routledge, 2016.
Srivastava, P., Private or Public: Does the proliferation of low-fee/low-cost private schools improve or impede learning for all? Debate for UNESCO IIEP Learning Portal, August 2016, electronic document and audio file.
Srivastava, P., Low-fee private schools and poor children: what do we really know? The Guardian, 12 August 2015, electronic document.
Srivastava, P., Low-fee private schooling: what do we really know? From Poverty to Power, Oxfam blog, 11 August 2015, electronic document.
Srivastava, P., Why private investors, governments, and aid agencies should rethink their strategies. Quality Education for All: are low-cost private schools the answer? EduDebate, WISE ed.review, Qatar Foundation, April 2014, electronic document.
Srivastava, P. (Ed.) Low-fee Private Schooling: aggravating equity or mitigating disadvantage? (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2013)
Srivastava, P., ‘Low-fee private schooling: issues and evidence’, in P. Srivastava (Ed.), Low-fee Private Schooling: aggravating equity or mitigating disadvantage? Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2013). Download here.
Srivastava, P., Noronha, C., & Fennell, S., Private sector study: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Report submitted to DFID (India), 2013, pp. 66. Download here.
Srivastava, P., ‘School choice in India: disadvantaged groups and low-fee private schools’, in M. Forsey, S. Davies, and G. Walford (Eds.), The Globalization of School Choice?, (pp. 185-208). Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2008). View abstract.
Srivastava, P., The shadow institutional framework: towards a new institutional understanding of an emerging model of private schooling in India. Research Papers in Education. 23(4): 451-475, 2008. Link to article.
Srivastava, P., ‘For philanthropy or profit?: the management and operation of low-fee private schools in India?’, in P. Srivastava and G. Walford (Eds.) Private Schooling in Less Economically Developed Countries: Asian and African perspectives, (pp. 153-186). Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2007) View abstract.
Srivastava, P., ‘Low-fee private schooling: challenging an era of Education for All and quality provision?’, in G. Verma, C. Bagley, & M. M. Jha (Eds.), International Perspectives on Educational Diversity and Inclusion: studies from America, Europe and India, (pp. 138-161.) (Routledge, New York, 2007). View excerpt.
Srivastava, P. Neither voice nor loyalty: school choice and the low-fee private sector in India. Research Publications Series, Occasional Paper No. 134. National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, Columbia University, New York, 2007, pp. 46.
Srivastava, P., Low-fee private schooling for disadvantaged girls in India. ID21 Education, Research Highlight. Institute of Development Studies, UK, 2007, electronic document.
Srivastava, P., Private schooling and mental models about girls’ schooling in India. Compare. 36(4): 497-514, 2006. View abstract.
Srivastava, P. Disadvantaged groups and the private sector: challenges to and implications for Indian education policy. A report for the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, and for the Department of Secondary Education, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India. Department of Educational Studies, University of Oxford, 2006, pp. 75.
Srivastava, P., Why is schooling failing in the 'new' India? Open University-BBC open2.net, International Development. Milton Keynes, Open University, UK, 2006, electronic document.
Srivastava, P., A household, school and state level analysis of the implications of low-fee charging private schools for socially and economically disadvantaged groups in India. Report for the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, New Delhi, 2003.
Invited Talks and Presentations
Are Low-cost Private Schools Helping Achieve Quality Education for All in Africa?, Smackdown Debate, Africa Knowledge Fest 2017, World Bank, Washington, DC, 22 February 2017.
'New Global Philanthropy and the Second Wave of the Low-fee Private Sector.' Roundtable,The Global Education Industry: Philanthropy, business, and the changing role of government. World Social Forum, Montreal, 10 August 2016.
'Does the UK Government Believe in Evidence-based Policy? Evidence on Low-fee Private Schooling.' Invited presentation to give evidence to the UK Government All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Education For All, 'A discussion on donor support to low-cost private schools to provide inclusive, equitable and quality education for all in developing countries'. Westminster Palace, London, 21 October 2015.
'Morphing the Market: the second wave of the low-fee private sector.' Keynote address, 7th World Congress on Education, Education International, Ottawa, 19-26 July 2015.
'Global evidence on low-fee private schooling: affordability, quality, equity?' Invited lecture, TISS-Azim Premji University-King’s College London Summer School on ‘Changing Nature of the Public and Private in School Education’, Azim Premji University, Bengalaru, 15 June 2015 [pre-recorded session].
'Non-state actors in education: examining the evidence.' Debate on the Appropriate Role for Non-State Actors Engagement in Education, Research Policy Symposium, Center for Universal Education, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., 5-6 March 2015.
'Quality Education for All: are low-cost private schools the answer?' Invited debate presentation, 2014 World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), Doha, Qatar, 4-6 November 2014. View debate highlights here.
'Early childhood development: is the private sector the answer for developing countries?' Invited seminar webcast, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University, 30 October 2014.
'Global evidence on low-fee private schooling: affordability, quality, and equity?' The Impact of Privatization/Marketization on the Education of Disadvantaged Students’ Conference, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 3-4 October 2013.
'Private education in the context of development.' Strategic Policy and Performance Branch, Canadian International Development Agency, Ottawa, 7 November 2011.
'Shadow frameworks: a new institutional perspective on education policy and practice in India.' Research Colloquium, Humboldt University, Berlin, 14 May 2009.
'Low-fee private schooling: understanding its potential impact on institutional processes and governance in the context of EFA.' 2009 Education for All Global Monitoring Report Planning Meeting, UNESCO, Paris, 10 October 2007.
'The private schooling paradox in an era of "Education for All": an Indian case study.' The Globalization of School Choice: an international research symposium, University of Western Australia, Perth, 12-14 December 2006.
'Privatisation and changing attitudes about girls’ schooling in India.' Comparative Education Seminars: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Education in South Asia, St Antony's College, University of Oxford, Oxford, 31 January 2006.
Conference Papers
Srivastava, P., The second wave of the low-fee private sector: corporate-backed chains in the Global South. Paper presented at the 13th UKFIET International Conference on Education and Development, Oxford, 15-17 September 2015. [TBD]
Srivastava, P., On the 'low-ness' of fees: questioning assumptions of affordability in the low-fee private sector. Pop-up talk, 13th UKFIET International Conference on Education and Development, Oxford, 15-17 September 2015. [TBD]
Srivastava, P., The global scaling-up of low-fee private schooling: the nexus between business, philanthropy, and PPPs. 59th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society, Washington, D.C., USA, 8-13 March 2015.
Srivastava, P., Contradictions and the persistence of the mobilizing frames of privatization: interrogating the global evidence on low-fee private schooling. Paper presented at the 58th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society, Toronto, 10-15 March 2014.
Srivastava, P. Low-fee private schooling: aggravating equity or mediating disadvantage? Research panel, XIV World Congress of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies, Istanbul, 14-18 June 2010.
Srivastava, P. Choosing private: girls’ schooling in India. Paper presented at the 2007 American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Chicago, 9-13 April 2007.
Srivastava, P., Challenging the State?: quality, EFA, and the low-fee private sector in India. Paper presented at the 2006 American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, San Francisco, 7-11 April 2006.
Srivastava, P., Private schooling mediating gender bias?: changing mental models about girls’ schooling in India. Paper presented at the 50th Celebration Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society, Honolulu, 14-18 March 2006.
Srivastava, P., The best of the bunch?: questioning the relative quality of the state and low-fee private sectors in India. Paper presented at the 8th UKFIET International Conference on Education and Development, Oxford, 13-15 September 2005.
Srivastava, P., The shadow institutional framework: a new institutional analysis of the low-fee private sector in India. Paper presented at the 2005 American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Montreal, 11-15 April 2005.
Srivastava, P., Altering the framework of education for disadvantaged groups: the low-fee private sector in India. Paper presented at the XIIth World Congress of Comparative Education Societies, Havana, 25-29 October 2004.
Srivastava, P., Tipping the balance?: disadvantaged households’ engagement strategies in LFP schooling in India. Paper presented at the Globalisation and Inclusion Conference, University College Cork, Cork, 31 May-1 June 2004.
Srivastava, P., Low-fee private schools for disadvantaged groups in India: implications for educational equity policy. Paper presented at the 2004 American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, San Diego, 12-16 April 2004.