The Growing Role of Affordable Non-State Schools in Global Education

One year ago, Opportunity International’s EduFinance program published the 6th edition of The State of the Affordable Non-State School Sector Report, examining the scale, growth, and financing needs of affordable non-state education globally. One year on, the report’s projections offer an opportunity to consider how these trends are likely to evolve through 2028 and what they mean for the continued role of affordable non-state education in expanding access to schooling.

Prior to joining Opportunity International’s MERL team five years ago, I, like many, largely associated the term “private school” with institutions serving relatively affluent families. I understood private education primarily as an alternative to public education, and one that was available to families with the financial means to choose it.
That perspective began to change in 2021, when I joined Opportunity International’s MERL team and began to understand the data, research, and context behind the affordable non-state school sector for the first time. In many low- and middle-income countries, affordable non-state schools are an important part of the education landscape, particularly in communities where public provision is unable to meet demand.

This perspective was reinforced by the 2021/2 Global Education Monitoring Report, Non-State Actors in Education, released this same year, which challenged several assumptions about non-state education that I had previously taken for granted. Among them was the myth that public education is universally free, when families often continue to bear costs such as uniforms, examinations, transportation, and school supplies. Another was the misguided assumption that expanding public education alone would be sufficient to meet growing demand, despite the significant financial and capacity constraints facing governments.

These questions of scale and capacity are central to Opportunity International’s The State of the Affordable Non-State School Sector Report, the 6th edition of which was published last year. Each new edition of the report provides an updated assessment of the size and trajectory of the sector, as well as the financing constraints that affect both schools and families.

The scale of the global education challenge remains significant. Approximately 263 million children are currently out of school, translating to roughly one in five school-aged children. At the same time, the number of children enrolled in non-state schools is projected to reach 334 million by 2028. Together, these figures illustrate both the scale of unmet demand for education and the growing role that non-state providers play in responding to it.

Meeting global education goals will require substantial additional resources. The report estimates a $1.8 trillion annual financing gap to achieve SDG 4. Domestic and international annual education expenditure would need to increase from $1.2 trillion to $3.0 trillion – a 117 percent increase – to enable children to complete primary and secondary education with basic levels of learning.

This is not simply a question of whether governments should spend more. Many low- and middle-income countries already devote a substantial share of their government budgets to education, while continuing to face high out-of-school rates. The scale of the additional resources required highlights the importance of considering how governments, families, non-state providers, and financial institutions can each contribute to expanding access and improving quality.