Abstract Outsourcing the management of ninety-three randomly-selected government primary schools in Liberia to eight private operators led to learning gains of 0.18$\sigma$ after one year, but these effects plateaued in subsequent years (reaching 0.2$\sigma$ after three years). Beyond learning gains, the programme reduced corporal punishment (by 4.6 percentage points from a base of 51%), but increased dropout (by 3.3 percentage points from a base of 15%) and failed to reduce sexual abuse. Despite facing similar contracts and settings, some providers produced uniformly positive results, while others presented trade-offs between learning gains, access to education, child safety, and financial sustainability.

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