Low-fee private schooling in Punjab, Pakistan: revisiting debates on access, equity, and quality

Low-Fee Private Schools are highly contested in the academic and policy literature. However, these debates are constrained. They do not differentiate among the different types of LFPS, generalizing findings from certain types to others. In a pioneering effort in the field of educational privatization, focusing on the province of Punjab in Pakistan, access, equity, and quality are compared amongst six types of LFPS: Cheap, Medium-range, and Costly Independent LFPS and Cheap, Medium-range, and Costly Chain LFPS. Access and equity are determined by analyzing how LFPS juggle transactions costs, student enrollment, and affordability. Teacher quality and the socialization function of institutions are further examined to assess quality instead of relying on student test scores. Analysis of these unique parameters reveals that no LFPS type fully integrates access, equity, and quality; quality comes at the expense of access and equity, and vice versa. Thus, some types of LFPS in Pakistan do not necessarily increase access to education for the marginalized, and where they do, they skim off on the quality of education. Contract failure is found across all LFPS types. The findings of this article demonstrate that a one-size-fits-all approach, whether in academic debates or in policy decisions affecting the LFPS sector, needs to be reconsidered before implementing blanket, irrevocable policy actions against LFPS.