The UN's Millenium Development Goals include a commitment to universal primary school education for all children. Twenty years ago, eight out of 10 children in the world went to primary school. Today it's nine out of 10, but getting to 100% will be a tough challenge. Primary schooling for every child has only been achieved in 50 countries to date. A further 57 countries are currently experiencing a number of difficulties which are preventing them from meeting the goal.

So it is timely that the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University this month held a conference on Mobilizing the Private Sector for Public Education. The conference focused on public-private partnerships in education in the context of both developing and developed countries and the efficacy of such initiatives. The event aimed to foster public-private partnerships in education by giving the theoretical arguments behind mobilizing the private sector. It explored the creation of a research program on public-private partnerships in education, with an emphasis on private sector contracting models.

This model has applications in the developing world where private sector schooling can bring education where there was none before. In the developed world failing urban schools could be taken over and re-invigorated by private sector entrepreneurs who use different educational approaches.