As the PPP in education phenomenon increases in volume and reach, so does the intensity of the interchange around their legitimacy and pertinence. This chapter discusses concerted efforts undertaken by a growing body of national and international civil society organizations from the education and human rights fields to bring a human right perspective to the discourse around the implications of the increased involvement of private actors in education. It outlines the process, including the tensions arising from diverging views about policy approaches to private education as part of education systems. It describes and analyzes both the difficulties of such a process and the theoretical and analytical progress made in developing guiding principles for the involvement of private partners (for profit or not-for-profit) using human rights as both an ethical and legal framework. the chapter will conclude that the ongoing development of a normative framework is built on a process of informed and critical reflection by different stakeholders attempting to navigate and find a way forward in a contentious debate on the role of private actors in education.

This chapter introduces the reader to the process of the development of the Abidjan Principles on the human rights obligations of States to provide public education and to regulate private involvement in education. It details the background on the need fo