Privatisation of education is on the rise, being offered as the best alternative to achieve universal education and improve its quality and cost-efficiency. However, the benefits of the entry of private providers in education are highly controversial and tend to be judged in terms of market criteria such as choice and efficiency, neglecting the effects in terms of human rights. This forum provides a timely and much needed analysis of the spread of private education, when so many international donors are strongly in favour of private providers. It emerged from a panel at the International Conference on Education and Development in September 2015, held in Oxford, UK, where the four contributors presented their findings at the session: "Privatisation and Marketization of Education." The great interest and debate that their presentations generated were the seeds of this forum. Following an introduction by Maria Ron Balsera, this paper contains the following contributions: (1) Delphine Dorsi de-codifies the role of private providers in education under the international human rights framework; (2) Maria Ron Balsera presents a worldwide review of education laws analysing the landscape of provisions dealing with private provision of education; (3) Andreu Termes, Xavier Bonal, and Antoni Verger move to a concrete case study and analyse the quality and equity implications of a paradigmatic type of public-private partnership, the charter schools "Colegios en Concesión" in Colombia; and (4) Javier Gonzalez Diaz analyses the political economy of vouchers in Chile, assessing the Chilean educational system in regard to its capacity to increase quality of education, reduce inequality of outcomes and promote social inclusion.