DERG Member Writes Debate Piece on Education
PhD student and DERG member Kasper Brandt has recently contributed to the Danish medium Altinget.dk with a debate piece on education in developing countries.
In the article, Brandt argues that private schools provide opportunities for both rich and poor children because they serve specific clusters in society such as religious groups, middle-class families and poor families. This heterogeneous characteristic makes private schools the ‘less bad’ alternative until more is known about how to improve public schools.
Concerning the question of student performance, Brandt draws on his research ‘When Private beats public: A flexible value-added model with Tanzanian school switchers’ to support the argument that students tend to do better in private schools. He further touches upon some of the shortcomings of the private sector.
Debat is a section within Altinget.dk where experts are invited to submit their opinion about development issues worldwide.