{"title":"Disaggregating Pakistan’s low-fee private schooling system","authors":"Wajeeha Hazoor","doi":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103313","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The LFPS sector is highly contested in the academic and policy spheres. Yet, debates are constrained by a rather simplistic grouping of LFPS in one category distinct only from elite private schools and public schools. Through a multiple, holistic case study approach that employed a multi-tiered sampling strategy, the LFPS sector in urban low-income and mixed-income neighborhoods in Rawalpindi, Pakistan was examined. This effort elicited six distinct types of LFPS: Cheap, Medium-range, and Costly Independent LFPS and Cheap, Medium-range, and Costly Chain LFPS. These LFPS vary in terms of structure—whether part of nationwide chains or independent entities that have a legacy rooted in the country’s colonial history—and fee range. This typology bears important implications for existing debates as it exemplifies the limitations of generalizing findings from one type of LFPS to other types. It further confirms the rise of LFPS Chains in Pakistan. Finally, it documents the presence of LFPS with philanthropic orientations by locating family and formal philanthropies in the sector.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48004,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Development","volume":"116 ","pages":"Article 103313"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Educational Development","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059325001117","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The LFPS sector is highly contested in the academic and policy spheres. Yet, debates are constrained by a rather simplistic grouping of LFPS in one category distinct only from elite private schools and public schools. Through a multiple, holistic case study approach that employed a multi-tiered sampling strategy, the LFPS sector in urban low-income and mixed-income neighborhoods in Rawalpindi, Pakistan was examined. This effort elicited six distinct types of LFPS: Cheap, Medium-range, and Costly Independent LFPS and Cheap, Medium-range, and Costly Chain LFPS. These LFPS vary in terms of structure—whether part of nationwide chains or independent entities that have a legacy rooted in the country’s colonial history—and fee range. This typology bears important implications for existing debates as it exemplifies the limitations of generalizing findings from one type of LFPS to other types. It further confirms the rise of LFPS Chains in Pakistan. Finally, it documents the presence of LFPS with philanthropic orientations by locating family and formal philanthropies in the sector.
期刊介绍:
The purpose of the International Journal of Educational Development is to foster critical debate about the role that education plays in development. IJED seeks both to develop new theoretical insights into the education-development relationship and new understandings of the extent and nature of educational change in diverse settings. It stresses the importance of understanding the interplay of local, national, regional and global contexts and dynamics in shaping education and development. Orthodox notions of development as being about growth, industrialisation or poverty reduction are increasingly questioned. There are competing accounts that stress the human dimensions of development.