Still in need of confronting: Shadow education and its implications in the sustainable development goals

Recent decades have brought global expansion of private supplementary tutoring, widely known as shadow education, with enrolment rates in some countries and at some grades now exceeding 80%. Shadow education maintains and exacerbates social inequalities despite government efforts through the Education for All (EFA) agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to reduce inequalities. Patterns vary, but in most countries shadow education receives inadequate policy attention in part because governments feel that it is beyond their remit and/or that they lack regulatory capacity. The paper argues for improved data collection for clarity on the extent, nature and implications of shadow education, and for stronger attention to regulations. One component of these regulations should focus on teachers, to specify the circumstances in which teachers may (not) provide tutoring. Another component should focus on commercial providers of shadow education, regulating them not only in the ways that other businesses are regulated but also with specific focus on educational domains.