Читать книгу Public-Private Partnerships in Education - Allah Bakhsh Malik - Страница 8

In Pakistan, it is the state’s constitutional responsibility to provide free education up to the secondary level to all children. The state has been partially successful in providing access to education, but it has not been able to ensure the quality of education for many students—particularly those living in poor and underserved areas. Parents dissatisfied with the public school system have looked elsewhere for better education opportunities for their children. The less affluent among them have started turning to low-tuition private schools in urban and rural areas.

The Government of Pakistan alone cannot accomplish the gigantic task of providing quality education and meeting the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA). That is why the government now supports the use of public–private partnerships (PPPs) in its efforts to improve the equity and quality of the educational system. Evidence from the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) indicates that the marriage between public and private institutions through PPPs has been extremely successful due to the combination of private-sector efficiency and public-sector funding. Indeed, the combination has resulted in better learning outcomes, fewer school dropouts, less absenteeism among teachers, and reduced truancy among students.

To achieve its goal of affordable quality education for the underprivileged, the PEF has undertaken a number of PPP initiatives, including the Foundation-Assisted Schools (FAS) program, the Continuous Professional Development Program (CPDP), the Teaching in Clusters by Subject Specialists (TICSS) program, and the Education Voucher Scheme (EVS).

FAS is the PEF’s flagship program, providing financial assistance to private schools at the rate of PRs350 per month for each child enrolled under the program’s auspices. FAS includes 1,337 schools in the province of Punjab, benefitting 529,210 students. The CPDP recognizes that it is not possible to raise the standard of education without qualified and competent teachers. Under this program, teachers at low-tuition private schools were given opportunities for ongoing professional development through cluster-based training aimed at improving pedagogical skills and subject area knowledge. More than 86,027 teachers were trained over the 2005–2009 period. The PEF has also introduced the School Leadership Development Program (SLDP) for the principals and vice principals of FAS partner schools and non-FAS schools to improve the managerial capability of private school heads and deputy heads. More than 12,000 principals and vice principals received training over the 2007–2009 period.

The TICSS program, launched in 2006, recognizes the importance of good teachers with sound subject knowledge. It also recognizes that low-tuition private schools cannot afford to hire good mentors and train their teachers because highly qualified mentors demand higher salaries than such schools can afford to pay. Under the TICSS program, graduates from the best universities in the province are hired at market-level salaries (e.g., PRs30,000–PRs35,000 versus PRs3,500–PRs6,000 for “standard” teachers) and deputed to low-tuition private schools in various urban and rural areas of the province.

In collaboration with the Teachers College, Columbia University, and the Open Society Institute, the PEF designed the EVS for residents of the slums (or katchi abadies) in the province. The EVS is meant to ensure freedom of choice, efficiency, equity, and social cohesion. A pilot project was started in 2006 in the urban slums of Sukhnehar, Lahore. As part of the EVS, the PEF delivered education vouchers in selected communities to all households with children 5–13 years of age. At the pilot stage, 1,053 households were given an opportunity to send their children to private schools of their choice. The voucher was redeemable against tuition payments for these schools. Through the EVS, the PEF is now providing free quality education to 31,053 students (51.3% female) in 167 schools. The parity of male and female students was ensured by an awareness campaign directed at participating families and by an EVS policy that makes it mandatory for participating households to enroll all girls and boys within the prescribed age range. If a household admits its boys using an EVS voucher, but not its girls, its voucher becomes invalid.

The PEF’s programs experienced a meteoric rise from 2005 to 2007, but their further growth was stalled for more than a year due to a changeover in the Punjab government. Furthermore, abrupt policy shifts caused by changes in the PEF management and Board of Directors also seriously affected the progress of the programs, and people started to raise questions about the transparency and accountability of the PEF’s administration. In early 2009, there was a lot of public pressure regarding the efficacy and social acceptability of the PPPs sponsored by the PEF. As a result, there was another restructuring of the foundation, and funding became available again, making possible the resumption and expansion of PEF programs. Questions remained, however, about the ability of the PEF to function in the absence of a Board of Directors and a capable management selected by the Board. The solution lay in the observance of the rules established in the 2004 legislation. Indeed, by September 2009, appointments to the Board of Directors were completed and a new management was put in place. The organization should soon be back on track and able to resume its programs, which had slowed down. But this would take some time.

The PPP programs initiated by the PEF are making it possible for more poor children in Punjab to access quality education, and to stay in school longer. Projections are encouraging. The PEF has demonstrated that its programs are cost-effective, and that they are beginning to show results. Judging from their marks on the Quality Assurance Tests, the students at PEF-assisted schools have made remarkable academic progress. No wonder that the foundation’s PPPs have been applauded by private schools; international donor agencies; and federal, provincial, and district governments.

The Punjab Education Foundation Act of 2004, passed by the Provincial Assembly of Punjab, mandated that the foundation encourage everyone with a stake in the educational system to participate in its PPPs, and that it provide funds for the expansion, improvement, and better management of private schools to make quality education available to the poor. It also mandated the PEF to provide technical assistance to private schools for the testing of innovative programs, with replication in mind. This mission was made possible via program development by the PEF and service delivery through the PPPs.