Private education in Illuminatia
The pursuit of and provision of private education is a relatively uncommon phenomenon in Illuminatia due to the universal availability of public education. Nonetheless, privately-provided and privately-funded education is deemed permissible by the Bureau of Education and Enlightenment (BEE). Private education, while it might enjoy limited to no public funding, remains under full oversight of the BEE and operates with curricula and educational standards approved by and scrutinized by the BEE's Office of Curriculum and Programming (OCP).
Private education is available at all four levels of education in Illuminatia. While a private primary education is accessible to a limited extent for developing learners, the majority of private education takes place at the secondary and tertiary levels at colleges and universities. It is fairly common for mature learners to optionally benefit from privately-funded augmentations to their quaternary educational experiences.
The Illuminatian education system has largely avoided any disparities between publicly and privately operated educational institutions by maintaining a standardized education system at the public level and fully funding public education at the highest practical level, leaving the vast majority of Illuminatians no compelling reason to seek these services from privately-managed providers.
Private institutions—including primary schools, universities, institutes, and libraries—operate without direct public money and do not fully benefit from the subsidies and stipends awarded to individual learners for their tuition-related expenses. Private education and enlightenment providers must adhere to all the same standards relating to their teaching, curricula, and programming as their public counterparts, which ensures the quality of the education provided irrespective of the nature of the institution providing it.
Societal role
Contrary to the barbaric values of many ancient Earthly civilizations, private educational institution in Illuminatia actually hold a somewhat diminished place in popular opinion as far as perception of quality and socio-economic status. Cultural stereotypes and biases tends to squarely view private schools and universities as vaguely inferior to their public counterparts, and the people who attend private institutions tend to be viewed as unable to succeed in or unable to find placement in the standard public system.
Oftentimes, private education facilities are established to cater to the educational requirements of persons who, for one reason or another, cannot or wish not to pursue an educational track that is congruent with the educational plan that the BEE determines is most beneficial for a person's place in society.
Familial and domestic units with access to independent wealth and who need not rely on the public system of stipends and incentives tend to use the private education system to bypass BEE-recommended education plans in favor of career paths that may be more prone to risk or open to competition. Learners may also seek private education to provide an education path differing from BEE standards for persons whose desired path does not match with the results of their assessments and testing scores. Learners of modest means who do not benefit very successfully from the public incentive system might pursue the private education system to take advantage of its charitable outreach to allow pursuit of an education that may not otherwise be adequately subsidized by the BEE. Private institutions commonly provide scholarships to students of modest means whose BEE assessment scores do not match the competencies and education track they choose to pursue.
Placement
Students at most private colleges and universities are not allowed to participate in the Occupational and Instructional Productivity and Placement System (OIPPS), the job and career placement system operated by the BEE's Office of Assessment and Placement (OAP). Graduates from public institutions are essentially guaranteed placement in a career or educational role through the placement system. However, graduates from private institutions, in general, must instead compete in the open employment marketplace, risking the possibility that they may not find an adequate job or a position of advancement in higher education. Some secondary and tertiary institutions might offer the option to accept or reject a partial stipend in exchange for partial participation in the placement system, allowing some limited placement benefits.