How to fix the education apartheid

Implications of public-private partnership in education

Public-private partnership (PPP) as development model to dig deep into the private coffers plays important role in the fast-track growth. It means the development and running of an infrastructure which is normally done by the government or public sector and may include a government component through land and capital or it could be a joint venture. Due to failure of the public sector to procure a capital asset for ensuring a service to the public, the private individuals through companies and firms create the asserts and infrastructures through a business concern and use it to deliver a service to people.

This model for development aims at leveraging the private resource and expertise to provide better quality and timely services. It is not limited to any one sector and includes, among others, transport, energy, tourism, and social infrastructure. Social services like education and health are part of social infrastructure.

Since early 1990s the PPPs have been regarded as the anchor of education strategy in Pakistan. Initially it was thought that PPP in education will help to increase enrolment and expedite the process in achieving the goals of Education for All (EPA) program in a country that was seriously behind schedule. The concept was adopted and implemented despite concerns that the use of PPP model in social infrastructure development like education will prove problematic. Most of the fears have proven right.

Instead of improving the educational indicators, the PPP process resulted in the transformation of education from a people oriented service to a “wholesale business”. There was unusual increase in the number of private schools in every corner of the country in 1990s and afterwards. Some of them were set up in shabby buildings without proper infrastructure but state authorities did not try to stop it, thinking that some erratic development has to be condoned at the early stage. As more and more private entrepreneurs invested in the education system, the quality control standards were disregarded. The government should have used the opportunity to leverage the best private sector practices to improve the public sector, but it looked the other way to let the private investors settle the issues of tuition fees, syllabus, medium of instruction, recruitment of teachers and internal promotion of students. The official neglect was visible at almost every step. With the passage of time the private sector almost replaced the state school system in urban centres where various “systems” emerged to allure the parents as their “first choice”. The PPP which was initially considered to supplement the official efforts to educate the masses became a major source of service delivery.

Pakistan Coalition for Education (PCE), an independent group working on education in its report titled “Looking Beyond the EFA Goals and the DMGs” says, PPP is an area with immense potential but with risks as well. While such partnership can be explored and developed towards promoting education, it is important to ensure that public interest must not be compromised in favour of profit or other pragmatic considerations. Otherwise, it is likely to cause disparities along class lines if the educational process is driven by the demand of the market. It is the government’s responsibility to place public wellbeing above everything while forging partnerships across sectors.

It is now evident that the PPP program in Pakistan education diluted the purpose of the model which was conceived to promote inclusive socio-economic development in the country and protect the interests of all stakeholders including end users and affected people. Another aspect of the original system was that the PPPs should provide good quality public services to a larger number of people. The situation deteriorated with the passage of time and today we see that only a selected rich group of people can benefit from the private educational institutions and the poor segments of the society are left at the mercy of poorly run state institutions.

The PPPs have led to privatization of educational services and slackening of official control. The owners of schools have become powerful and some of them do not follow the official calendar and other guidelines as their main objective seems to be promotion of the business. It has led to education apartheid and we have different schools for different categories of people. The poor and downtrodden sending kids to religious seminaries whereas the middle class seeks either the government schools or private institutions with low monthly fees. The rich of the country opt for English medium elite schools which charge thousands of rupees every month. It has increased the socio-economic segregation in the society.

To make the most of public private partnership, it would be wise if collaboration is context-specific. This would help address the needs of local communities in a better way. To enhance transparency in partnerships, civil society should be encouraged to monitor different public sector initiatives aiming at the welfare of the people. Moreover, local partners working at the grassroots should be empowered by involving them in decision-making and monitoring service delivery and outcomes.

The writer is journalist and academic and can be reached at [email protected]