This paper explores progress in designing and implementing privatisation and decentralisation reforms in the education sector, which have become increasingly advocated by international agencies over the past two decades. Privatisation can be considered one of the organisational forms of decentralisation--indicating a transfer of authority and responsibility from government to private hands. However, in national policy, the reforms are often considered independently of each other. Importantly, evidence from Malawi indicates that there are differences in implementation of the reforms. Decentralisation is taking place by design, but progressing slowly as the central government seeks to maintain control over the education sector. By contrast, private schools have been rapidly expanding by default in some areas of Malawi, paradoxically resulting in a shift in control away from the central government, with potential adverse consequences for educational quality.