1 Introduction

The boom in non-state education in developing countries around the world has posed a challenging conundrum for their governments. Should they deny, ignore or stifle the rise of private schooling as an indictment of their inability to provide adequate services for their people? Or should they embrace the emergence of a more pluralist system as an opportunity to facilitate higher educational quality, one that is more responsive to parental preferences and possibly at a fraction of the delivery cost?

The quandary is particularly pronounced in Nigeria, where one in four children is now enrolled in some form of independent school (NPC, 2010). Specifically, in Lagos, a bustling megacity with a reported population of 20 million (Lagos State Government, 2013), at least 57 percent of children currently attend private schools (Härmä, 2011). In some cases, these are exclusive institutions that cater for the wealthy elite; in most cases, however, the schools operate on shoestring budgets to meet the educational needs of families in poor communities.

To date, the majority of these ‘affordable’ private schools have functioned with little government recognition and limited support from market providers. With children’s learning potentially constrained by such deficiencies, this paper therefore explores the apparent resourcing requirements for non-state education in Lagos and similar contexts. In particular, the paper examines the practical needs of private schools serving low-income households and the roles that both government and market actors can play to enable improved and more inclusive pluralist systems1

Consequently, the first section considers the rise of non-state education both globally and in Nigeria, reflecting on the contentious debates around quality, equity and inclusion. The second section describes the research methodology for a survey of 55 private schools conducted across Lagos in 2014, while the third section sets out the key findings of that study. The fourth section reflects on the implications of the research for Lagos and beyond, with the final section drawing overall conclusions with reference to the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) Developing Effective Private Education Nigeria (DEEPEN) programme.

1 Day Ashley and Wales (2014) identify important differences in the operations of private schools, compared with philanthropic and religious schools. Notwithstanding the latter’s relevance within non-state education, a detailed consideration of the differences in their impact and resourcing requirements is beyond the scope of this paper.