Introduction
Recent studies show that the quality of the education may be measured only with four variables. They are prioritization of teaching practice, learning, solid connection with home or any other community, perfect school leadership and good supervision on behalf of the teachers during learning process. Given this fact, the reasonable question is: whether public schools can meet these requirements at the same level as private educational facilities? (The Conversation, 2015).
Economical explanation
One group of experts attempted to measure employment opportunities in reference to the school type and school quality. In the end of the twentieth century, scholars prepared the National Education Longitudinal Study with a purpose to set connection between wages, school type and school characteristics. Consideration of the outcomes of this study reveals some grounds for selection of the private educational facilities (Owyang, n.d.). In fact, the parents believe that education at private schools is the way to provide children with quality education that will improve their competitiveness at the employment market. However, there is no empirical evidence that obtaining certificate in private educational facility will definitely guarantee better livelihood or income for the person.
Demand for increasing private tutoring may be explained with standards of microeconomic theory of supply and demand. In every country, the supply of and demand for education should be considered with supply curves. This implies that the demand for education services may overcome capacity of the public institutions in the provision of necessary education in terms of quality and quantity. In Figure 1 below, one may consider the correlation of the curves pertaining to supply and demand for private and public education services.
The rising demand for private institutions is noticed in the Middle East region. The countries of the Middle East region report the necessity for improvement of the quality of the education as public institutions can not meet this demand. This graphical framework should be considered through standard microeconomic theory of supply and demand. In this respect, one should understand micro and macro factors affecting rising demand for private institutions. In particular, micro-level factors implies presence of specific share of public spending provided for operation of the public educational institutions, national cultural values. All these factors contribute to the flow of the demand for private tutoring.
Following above considerations, it should be noted that PISA outcomes show that the average social-economic background of the young people who were enrolled in private schools is better and more competitive in comparison to the indicators of the students in public schools. This difference is explained by the scholars by diverse funding for public and private institutions. Public funding of the educational facilities may develop opportunities for those people that lack resources to cover tuition fees. Hence, this provision of the finances leads to increased fixed costs per student. With that, public schools usually can not adjust quickly to the differences and changes in enrolment policies so that the quality of the services decreases (Achiron, 2012).
The other reason of selection of the private school by parents is positive student teacher ratio. Private schools usually pay a lot of attention to the size of the classes. Given the fact that the amount of students in class is smaller, children have an opportunity to develop strong relations with teachers and contribute to the personal development and academic performance. Consequently, funding of private school allows to diversify available activities. Students usually gain access to run clubs and other entertainments that are not affordable within the premises of the public institutions.
The role of the quality of education is widely considered nowadays because of the change of the structure of the community. This implies that the current educational market does not represent a monopoly as there are several stakeholders engaged in competition for consumers of educational services. Given this fact, the educational institutions compete with each other in order to meet demand for quality educational services in such competitive market. In fact, there is no significant difference in economic benefits for parents in selection of certain school type. In conclusion, it should be noted that the public schools are more affordable, while the demand for this education remains the same. At the same time, private schools are not accountable before the state bodies of the country. In the meantime, it is clear the parents should look at the quality of the education first when selecting institution for their children. In this respect, it is possible to expect that the difference between economic benefits of private and public schools will be totally removed.
- Achiron, M. (2012). Bridging the socio-economic divide between public and private schools. Oecdeducationtoday.blogspot.com. Retrieved 9 November 2017, from http://oecdeducationtoday.blogspot.com/2012/04/bridging-socio-economic-divide-between.html
- Owyang, M. Measuring the Effect of School Choice on Economic Outcomes. Retrieved 9 November 2017, from https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/october-2012/measuring-the-effect-of-school-choice-on-economic-outcomes
- The Conversation. (2015). Private vs public schools in SA: not a simple numbers game. Retrieved 9 November 2017, from http://Why Do Parents Prefer Private Schools Than Public Schools?
