20-08-2014, 03:37 PM
PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
A CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS PRIMARY EDUCATION
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ABSTRACT
The growth of the private sector and the emergence of a range of Basic Education PPPs both have implications for the role of international organizations and NGOs, as well as for private educational entrepreneurs. For the most part, education lending by international organizations such as the World Bank has mirrored the public sector dominance of Basic Education that exists in many countries. The expansion of PPPs has also highlighted a number of significant gaps in knowledge with respect to the private involvement in education. These gaps are evident at many levels and suggest several areas for future research. At a minimum, there is a need for much better data on the size and nature of the private Basic Education sector. Many developing countries lack even the most basic data on private Basic Education, including the number of schools, teachers and enrolments. In addition, not enough is known about the nature of private provision and the socio-economic status of the communities served by private schools. For example, despite recent evidence of the important role played by low-fee private schools in serving poor communities (Tooley 2011; Andrei, Das and Khwaja 2012), a myth persists that private schooling serves primarily (or only) elites. In many countries and jurisdictions, information on private schooling is either non-existent or is collected only in a haphazard fashion. This provides little basis upon which to assess the potential effects of either funding and regulator policy changes or assessing the potential role for PPPs in Basic Education.
Introduction:
Public–private partnership (PPP) describes a government service or private business venture which is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more sector companies. These schemes are sometimes referred to as PPP, P3 or P3.
PPP involves a contract between a public sector authority and a private party, in which the private party provides a public service or project and assumes substantial financial, technical and operational risk in the project. Public Private Partnership means an arrangement between a government / statutory entity / government owned entity on one side and a private sector entity on the other, for the provision of public assets and/or public services, through investments being made and/or management being undertaken by the private sector entity, for a specified period of time, where there is well defined allocation of risk between the private sector and the public entity and the private entity receives performance linked payments that conform (or are benchmarked) to specified and pre-determined performance standards, measurable by the public entity or its representative.
Public private partnership (PPP) is an approach used by government to deliver quality services to its population by using the expertise of the private sector. It is a contractual arrangement through which a private party performs part of the service delivery functions of the government while assuming associated risks. In return, the private party receives a fee from the government according to pre-determined performance criteria. Such payment may come out of the user charges or through the government budget or a combination of both.
Understanding Public-Private Partnerships In Education
The main rationale for developing public private partnerships (PPPs) in education is to maximize the potential for expanding equitable access to schooling and for improving education outcomes, especially for marginalized groups. In this chapter, we show how different types of contracts can help meet these two objectives in different socioeconomic and political contexts. Specifically, we examine how contracts are used to hold all partners accountable and how contracts are designed to produce measurable improvements in education outcomes or performance. The analysis considers contracting as a distinct instrument from any other education accountability mechanisms. We define contracting as the process whereby a government procures education or education-related services of a defined quantity and quality at an agreed price from a specific provider. The agreement between the funder and the service provider is recorded in a contract and is valid for a specified period of time (Taylor 2003; Wang 2000).
Many forms of contracting are currently used in education around the world. A range of different services can be procured from the private sector in following table 1.
Conclusions
This report has undertaken a review of the international experience with PPPs at the Basic Education level. These examples have been drawn from a wide range of both developed and developing countries. Several forms of PPP have been highlighted, including private philanthropic initiatives, private sector management initiatives, and private School funding programs,(e.g. subsidies and vouchers), adopt-a-school programs and school infrastructure partnerships. Private participation in education – and particularly Basic Education – remains controversial in many countries. Despite this, the number (and diversity) of PPPs at the Basic Education level is growing. ‘Traditional’ private philanthropic PPPs continue to play a significant role in financing education in many countries. More recently, many countries have introduced more sophisticated funding-based PPPs that involve government finance, but private sector delivery, of education services.
The efforts of private schools to improve the quality of their education should be supported, and governments should therefore consider adding capacity building components to voucher programs. Some private schools may lack the capacity to improve education quality because of unqualified teachers, a shortage of resources to enhance materials and textbooks, and inadequate knowledge of effective teaching techniques and management processes. Some of the support that has been given to private schools to overcome this problem includes facilitating their access to capital and arranging preferential loans to improve infrastructure and buy other critical inputs, as in the case of Mauritius.
Theory suggests that PPPs can increase access and improve quality in education in a number of ways: