New public management and primary education: Understanding reform initiatives in government primary schools

Abstract

New Public Management (NPM) refers to a set of Government and public sector reforms initiated in economies in the West from the 1980s onwards. The reining premise of this program was the inefficiency of the public sector in providing public services and the gains that could be made by adopting successful business practices to reform and repurpose the public sector and make it more responsive to citizen needs. This re-purposing also meant that spaces could be opened to the Private Sector – either for-profits or not-for-profits to “partner” with the Government in successful implementation of these public services. Citizens, in this context, were perceived as consumers of public services. In the area of education, this translated into parental choice.