Private tutoring and public corruption: A cost-effective education system for developing countries

Private tutoring by the public school teachers in developing countries is very common. This paper develops a strategic multistage game consisting of students, teachers, and the government to explain the practice of private tutoring. In order to achieve "education for all," the government finds it cost-effective to allow the teachers to offer income-generating private tutoring to the students. However, monitoring is the key issue here. The optimal solution takes explicit account of the inter-relationship between public provision and private supplementary tutoring so that a student is assured of his share of education at the lowest cost to the government. The study also shows that an intra-redistribution of resources from richer to poorer students takes place within the public schools.