BOOK REVIEW: Confronting the Shadow Education System: What Government Policies for What Private Tutoring? by Mark Bray (2009), 135pp. ISBN: 078-92-803-1333-8 Paris: IIEP/UNESCO Publishing.

While private tutoring has long been a part of the education scene in many countries of East Asia, during the past two decades private tutoring and other forms of supplementary schooling- what Bray calls the shadow education system - have now become widespread throughout much of the world. They can now be found in most countries in Asia, the former states of the Soviet Union, Western Europe, North America, Australia, Africa and even Latin America. How should governments regard this phenomenon? Should they ignore it, regulate it or seek to prohibit it? All three have been tried, in different countries, with limited success. This book examines the whole issue of the shadow education system; what it is; who benefits; what are the implications for families and for mainstream schools; what policy implications arise and how should governments and planners respond? It is based on the discussions that arose out of a 2007 forum held at the UNESCO Institute for Educational Planning in Paris.