ABSTRACT
It is appropriate to start the book with prefatory remarks about the nature of the terms “public” and “private” in education. There is a growing recognition in the international literature that the two terms are far from being binary in nature (see for instance, Ball, 2007; Power and Taylor, 2013; Robertson, Mundy, Verger and Menashy, 2012). If one considers the dimensions of funding, provision and regulation in education, it is apparent that these two terms are becoming increasingly blurred. Even though education is often conceived of as being a public good worthy of state regulation, funding and provision, more often than not, what we see is a variety of arrangements such as state funding of educational institutions run by non-governmental organizations or civil society. Along with the funding often comes regulation in one form or other, which bears testament to the importance with which many national governments view education in terms of its wider societal roles such as social cohesion. Often, private provision of education fi lls in gaps in state provision.
