And who owns those “private” companies? Are they funded by government, or by fees? Are they inspected by OFSTED, or are they actually “unaccountable”?

You appear to be labouring under the delusion that the only way a system can be state owned is via a monolithic central body directly controlling every piece. Britain is too big for a system like that to be effective, as much as the unions love it (because, of course, it gives them more power too, and b****r the rest of us).

The reason private education flourishes in most of the Third world is because the state version is corrupt and inefficient. (Education in those places is almost always a central bureaucracy too, which is is not accidentally related.) If the state school has teachers that fail to turn up and do their jobs properly, then no wonder the locals go elsewhere if they can.

We should support countries reform their state education systems so they are effective and transparent. Giving them more money doesn’t actually do that if there is no will and the institutional corruption is not tackled. It might not be ideologically pure enough for you, but supporting effective private education at least makes things better for the locals in situations where central government is likely to remain corrupt and ineffective.

Instead of privatising education around the world, the UK should instead be supporting tax justice.

You have a bee in your bonnet about this, we get it. But most of the Third World want their children properly educated, not some abstract “justice” that means nothing to them.