Public Private Partnership in Education: Best Practices Study

One of the components of SCDP is to strengthen the capacities, systems, and policies of the School Education and Literacy Department (SELD) to improve education services in conjunction with education reforms in Sindh. The report presents a study on public-private partnerships (PPPs) in education, focusing on the province of Sindh. The study aims to identify best practices and provide recommendations for improving education in Sindh. The report highlights the various meanings attached to PPPs and outlines the debate surrounding different models of education PPPs (ePPPs). The study analyzed prominent ePPP programs from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh. Programs from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa serve as examples of using innovative ways to address issues in education. The Girls Community School program targets girl enrollment through temporary set-up community schools until a formal school opens in the vicinity. The Tameer-e-School program uses technologically innovative techniques for engaging private sector funding to improve infrastructure of public schools. Punjab is studied for its large-scale voucher programs. The Education Voucher Scheme and Foundation-Assisted schools both use voucher funding to encourage enrollment in partner schools. These schools are chosen as per set criteria, and the programs use effective Monitoring and Evaluation mechanisms to ensure compliance. In Sindh, the Adopt-a-School Program was the first ePPP program to be implemented in Pakistan. The program facilitates private sector and civil society to adopt public-run schools, adding value in any way possible. The report recommends that minimum eligibility criteria for adopters should be implemented, roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders should be clearly defined, effective monitoring by the government is needed, and policies should be in place to ensure long-term involvement and interest of adopters. The Promoting Private Schools in Rural Sindh program provides voucher funding to private operators for the establishment of new schools. The program has experienced considerable success, with over 1,179 schools established under this program in the past 10 years. However, a major limitation to this model is that it does not extend vouchers to existing low-cost private schools in rural Sindh. Inclusion of these schools has been suggested as a recommendation in this report. The Education Management Organizations (EMOs) Program is the most recent ePPP program in Sindh. Under this program, SELD outsources the management of selected public schools to private organizations for ten years, under a PPP Agreement. To improve this model and make it replicable and sustainable on a large scale, the report suggests that the cost of each school should be brought down as much as possible, decentralization of teacher management, school buildings should be used for other purposes in the evening, and bidding-cost cap linked to a defined yardstick. The report presents other overarching recommendations for all ePPP programs in Sindh based on the study of best practices. Assessments, evaluation, and feedback should be conducted for all projects, including cost analysis, regular reviews of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), improved Monitoring and Evaluation mechanisms, and conducting longitudinal impact assessments. Teaching and learning practices should also be improved through regular teacher trainings and student assessments. Decentralization of resource management, most importantly decentralization of teacher management, is also recommended. Finally, improving human resource capacity of the office responsible for execution and monitoring of ePPP projects, the PPP Node, is also suggested. The report also recommends areas where new ePPP programs can help in further improving education. These include improving girls' participation in education through community schools or girls' stipend programs, improving access to education in urban centers through voucher programs, and addressing missing facilities in public schools through private funding. In conclusion, this report reveals that there is no one specific model or best practice that will always produce successful results. The impact of programs entirely depends on design, purpose, systems, innovations, and regulatory frameworks of the program and how well these factors are adapted to suit the needs of the community.