The provision of schooling is largely provided and financed by governments. However, due to unmet demand for education coupled with shrinking government budgets, the public sectors in several parts of the world are developing innovative partnerships with the private sector. Private education encompasses a wide range of providers including for-profit schools (that operate as enterprises), religious schools, non-profit schools run by Non Governmental Organizations (NGO), publicly funded schools operated by private boards, and community owned schools. In other words, there is a market for education.
The main rationale for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) programs is the potential role of the private sector for expanding equitable access and improving learning outcomes. In low income countries excess demand for schooling results in private supply when the state cannot afford schooling for all. In some case, the state can provide the institutions but unable to sustain them.
Papua New Guinea is one of the few countries in world that provide free education to its people. Regardless of the millions of Kina being spent on education sector alone, the performance and quality of education has dropped drastically. There has been rise in the violence and infightings between schools, especially in urban centers of Port Moresby and Lae, many schools do not complete their full academic year, classroom buildings are old, overcrowded and lack modern equipment and supplies. Teachers' houses are run downed, increased mismanagement and misuse of funds seems to be a norm in educational institutions. Who is responsible for many of these problems? Is the problem lies with the board of management, teachers, students or government? Why many schools do not receive subsidies on time? Why do many institutions pop up like mushrooms overnight and do not have the money to sustain them-selves in the long run? Teachers' salaries are low compared with those of other nations.
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| Photo by: Melanesia Education Development Foundation |
Most often, the problems facing educational institutions are uniform. Therefore, the Education Department must start a fact finding mission and establish some flat forms and baseline data in which the government can based and act on.
One way to solve some of the problems underlined is to reform current education policies and adopt a best strategy. Public Private Partnership is highly regarded as a pathway to quality education. Partnerships are not privatization, which involves the permanent transfer of control from a public agency to one or more private parties. Rather the aim of PPPs is twofold: (i) to promote improvement in the financing and provisions of services from both the public and private sectors but not to increase the role of one over the other; and (ii) to improve existing services provided by both sectors with an emphasis directed on system efficiency, effectiveness, quality equity and accountability. Critically, PPPs involves the public and the private sectors to working together to achieve important educational, social and economic objectives.
The World Bank has identified the key issues for support of the PPP in education. The first issue is access and equity. Where governments are not able to provide schooling facilities to all its population, private schools and public private partnerships in education are sometimes encouraged by governments as a policy. For instance in Indonesia, private schools cater specifically to the poorest sections of society, with the government policy explicitly committing to the private schools and channeling public funding into schools.
The issue of quality is the second. Although more rigorous evidence is needed, it is clear that PPPs, contracting, and subsidy arrangements, coupled with rigorous quality assurance mechanisms and such interventions as teacher training and school improvement initiatives, can rapidly expand access to schooling and increase its quality. The existence of private schools provides parents a choice, hence creating competition among schools and a drive to provide better quality education. Thirdly, the World Bank identified efficiency as an issue supporting PPP. Evidence suggests that demand-side programs where government expands the choice of the schools to parents and students can be a cost effective way of increasing educational attainment and education quality.
The final issue is complementarities between the Private and Public Sectors. PPPs can complement and enhance the role of the government in the provision of education. The task that each player can provide includes financial provision, pedagogical development, human resources development, service delivery, infrastructure, facilities management, among others. Furthermore, each partnership works in specific locations and markets. For these reasons, it is critical to investigate which are the appropriate roles of each stakeholder in the provision of education in the context of specific markets and locations.
Many developed and developing countries have implemented the PPP in health and education sector and it is effective. Corruption in PNG is eating the fabric of the society and the public institutions are polluted with corruption, thus, they cannot perform effectively and efficiently. That is why PPP is one of the best strategies available for the government to deicide.
Typically, education based PPP projects involve the design, construction, operation and financing for a school (or schools) or other educational facilities and/or the refurbishment and upgrade of existing facilities. The operation of the facilities will usually involve both "soft" facilities management services such as cleaning, catering or estate management services as well has "hard" facilities management services such as building maintenance services. Core education services such as the provision of teachers are usually retained by government but in theory there is no reason why such core education services could not be provided under a PPP arrangement.
Let me conclude here by challenging the Department of Education to establish the reasons why many education institutions are hacked with problems, affecting the quality of their performance. The government needs to establish appropriate regulatory frameworks and deliver quality education through the PPP strategy. Moving away from the traditional notion that government is largely responsible for schooling, enhancing the role of the private sector partner in education can lead to significant improvements in education service delivery in the country.
Next week, we will at the importance of evaluating government policies. Since this year was declared by O'Neil-Dion Government as the "Year of Implementation", my biggest fear is that many implementers might overlook the importance of evaluating polices. As such, it will be a timely discussion. Wish you God's Blessing for now.
The writer is undertaking post graduate studies and living in Indonesia. For comments and feedbacks, he can be contacted on jackassa945@gmail.com (email) / +081273238217 (Mobile Phone).
Source: Sunday Chronicle/ 2nd June/2013
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