ABSTRACT
In practically all countries the division between the private and state sectors of
education has never been firmly fixed. In most countries schooling originally devel-
oped through fee-paying schools provided by entrepreneurs, charities and religious
groups, but for the last 200 years or so state-funded and provided schooling gradu-
ally developed for children from families that could not afford to pay fees. In the
decades after the Second World War the near universal trend was increasing state
provision and funding for schooling and for private schooling to decrease in scale,
but in the last decades of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century
there has been a reversal, with privatisation in and of schooling being a common
feature in many countries. This privatisation has been highly controversial for
private schooling has traditionally been associated with elitism and privilege, and
many have questioned the effects of such changes in terms of social justice.
