A/HRC/41/37 22. In addition to the diversity of types of private schools, there has been a growing tendency in the last decade to develop public-private partnerships in education. Such partnerships are generally differentiated between charter schools; vouchers, which are subsidies for learners choosing their schools; and subsidies to private schools. 29 23. While an attractive way to fund education or improve educational governance, public-private partnerships raise major concerns for the realization of human rights. In 2016, Liberia created a significant outcry when the Government announced a plan to outsource its public pre-primary and primary schools to Bridge International Academies. The previous Special Rapporteur on the right to education considered that “such arrangements are a blatant violation of Liberia’s international obligations under the right to education, and have no justification under Liberia’s constitution”.30 The government plan was scaled down to a three-year pilot programme with additional private providers. In an evaluation of the programme comparing the public-private partnerships schools with standard public schools, it was reported that the public-private partnership was financially unsustainable. In the case of the Bridge schools, it led to the mass firing of teachers, the mass expulsion of children and the spending of much larger sums of money than any other school taking part in the pilot, with limited learning gains. 31 24. It is important to mention the role of development aid and assistance in relation to this issue. A key driving factor behind the growth of private actors in education has been the support of multilateral and bilateral donors for various forms of private schooling in developing countries. It is reported that bilateral donors, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as multilateral donors such as the World Bank, among others,32 have indirectly or directly funded private schooling in the last decade, which in some instances has raised particular concerns, including by treaty bodies.33 25. The Special Rapporteur notes with concern the emergence of multiple education funds, some of which use tools such as public-private partnerships and debt. She particularly expresses concern about the focus by the Education Outcomes Fund on supporting private providers of education in Africa and the Middle East. Given the risks that privatization poses for the realization of the right to education, the already existing massive and uncontrolled growth of private providers in many developing countries and the lack of capacity of many States to effectively regulate them, this represents an unprecedented risk for the realization of the right to education and could gravely undermine the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4.34 29 30 31 32 33 34 See Antoni Verger, Mauro Moschetti and Clara Fontdevila, “Unpacking PPPs’ effects on education: what research on vouchers, charters and subsidies tells us” (forthcoming). UN rights expert urges Liberia not to hand public education over to a private company, www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=18506. Mauricio Romero, Justin Sandefur and Wayne Aaron Sandholtz, “Can a public-private partnership improve Liberia’s schools?” (2017). See, for example, www.right-to-education.org/news/press-release-uk-fails-give-clear-response-yetanother-un-body-challenging-its-support; www.right-to-education.org/news/rte-supports-lettercalling-uk-government-halt-aid-funding-failing-private-schools-africa; and www.giescr.org/publications/brief-on-bridge-international-academies-investors. See, for example, www.right-to-education.org/news/world-bank-accepts-complaint-its-investmentbridge-international-academies and E/C.12/GBR/CO/6, para. 14. See “A critical response from the Global Campaign for Education on the Education Outcomes Fund for Africa and Middle East” (September 2018), available from www.campaignforeducation.org/docs/statements/GCE_STATEMENT_ON_EDUCATION_OUTCO MES_FUND_FINAL.pdf?utm_medium=Board&utm_source=Statement&utm_campaign=EOF&utm _term=EOF;statement;GCE&utm_content=Link_070918. 7