The Development and Dynamics of Public–Private Partnerships in the Philippines’ Education: A Counterintuitive Case of School Choice, Competition, and Privatization

Andreu Termes, D. Brent Edwards*, Antoni Verger

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Educational public–private partnerships (EPPP) have been widely implemented in the Philippines, primarily through the Education Service Contracting (ESC) voucher. Yet, the effects of this voucher on privatization of education, school choice, and competition dynamics remain largely understudied. This article addresses this gap through an investigation of families’ school choice patterns and schools’ logics of action in the Philippines’ education. Paradoxically, despite the pro-private sector impetus of the Philippine government and the implementation of the voucher scheme, the privatization of school provision in the Philippines is diminishing, and the schools receiving the voucher are becoming increasingly unaffordable for the poor families to whom the voucher was initially targeted. In parallel, despite its initial equity focus, the voucher has led to different patterns of school choice among families and to an array of responses by schools, both of which have combined to accentuate school segregation and stratification dynamics—between and within schools.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)91-117
Number of pages27
JournalEducational Policy
Volume34
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2020

Keywords

  • educational policy
  • privatization
  • public–private partnerships: Philippines
  • school choice
  • schools’ logics of action
  • vouchers

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