Abstract
The paper provides new evidence questioning the unconditional superiority of private schools. Exploiting the variation in the number of private and government schools located near the chosen school and using a unique data-set from Nepal, we show that private schools as a group are generally more efficient to boost SLC test scores than public schools. But private schools perform superbly (poorly) at higher (lower) school expenditure per student quartiles. Moreover, it is the not-for-profit trust-run private schools that outperform others because they invest more in learning related infrastructure, thus highlighting the benefits of social motivation for private provision of schooling