Continuing to exercise choice after selecting a school: Insights into parent-decision making in local education markets in Nepal

•Public school parents were more likely to be dissatisfied and to have weak engagement with the school officials.•Parents of smaller private schools were the most likely to be integrally engaged in improving school functioning.•Middle class parents have choices, given their ability to pay, while poorer parents are essentially left without options.•Parents who paid fees reported feeling empowered to raise concerns and to consider exiting from the school if unsatisfied.•Parents in all schools reported that they had no say in the school's financial decisions, such as fee setting.

This paper analyzes how parents continue to engage with schooling after their initial selection, using parent survey and focus group data collected in two urbanized districts in Nepal in 2011. I find substantial heterogeneity within and between public and private schools in parental participation. In particular, the parents who chose smaller private schools had stronger engagement with the school and their children, were more likely to voice their concerns, and consequently were more satisfied. In contrast, parents in below average public schools were more likely to express dissatisfaction but had limited interactions with schools to remedy their concerns.