System for Education (DISE) under SSA, but this only covers elementary education. DISE offers a tried, tested and regularly used mechanism which could be extended to the secondary level with relative ease.
4.9 Options for Improving Management of
Secondary Schooling
4.9.1 Optimal Mix of Public, Private and PPP
Schools
Clearly, given the diversity among the states, there is no single strategy for all of India in terms of secondary school management. States whose secondary education is predominantly government- financed and government- provided cannot expect private providers to be able to immediately absorb all increased demand, even with public subsidies. However, such states can certainly begin to pilot and evaluate alternative strategies, such as public per student subsidies to attend accredited private unaided schools. States which have heavily relied on private schools to provide enrollment cannot shift overnight to a public-dominated system; it would take too long and be too costly. Each state needs to define its own medium-term strategy relative to school management and its impact on improved access, equity, quality and financing of secondary education. This reflection must consider the evolving labor market demand, which is specific to each state. As part of this process, states should consider alternative models for school management which have shown promise in industrialized and developing countries around the world.
PPP Models
As mentioned in Chapter 2, PPPs can be structured in many different ways, with varying degrees of private sector risk and responsibilities, ranging from facility services (e.g. building maintenance, catering, etc.) to a full PPP model where the private sector partner is contracted to provide all teaching and non-teaching services (including constructing and capital financing a new public school). It is worth emphasizing that PPPs do NOT mean privatization; the public sector retains regulatory, financing and quality assurance roles, with the ability to suspend the partnership if the private sector does not perform to agreed-upon standards. PPPs can actually increase the public sector’s influence over the private sector. More
specifically, governments may contract with the private sector to: build/maintain public schools; provide non-educational services; provide curricula and educational materials; provide teaching and non-teaching services at public schools; or provide teaching services to publicly-funded students at privately-owned and managed schools.58 A mix of these
strategies is also possible.
For example, a state department of education could simply contract with private schools to provide a certain number of places as an agreed per student cost. Or, states could contract out management and teaching services of public schools to the non-public sector, with payments based on agreed-upon per student unit costs and satisfaction of performance criteria (quality of inputs, retention rates, examination pass rates, etc.). External independent monitoring could provide quality control, in addition to the MHRD inspectorate. Educational services (hiring and professional development of teachers, provision of textbooks, etc.) and non-educational services (catering, maintenance) would be the responsibility of the non-public entity. Government could also specify whether the school could charge parents additional fees above the per student subsidy, in which case it could also offer scholarships to students least able to pay.
At a minimum, new models of PPPs ought to be piloted. Whatever new models for PPPs are chosen for piloting, the key is to include in the contracts incentives for efficient capacity utilization and improved learning outcomes, along with external monitoring of school performance. These contracts should clearly specify minimum quality inputs (infrastructure, teachers, service delivery), outputs (physical and learning achievement oriented), and responsibilities of all parties, including maximum delays for public sector monitoring and payment. As mentioned earlier, additional critical factors for success include the use of transparent, competitive and open public bidding processes to generate value for money, especially for new schools. There is a wide experience from both OECD and developing countries spanning the globe which demonstrates the potential for PPPs to improve secondary education. Box 4.4 below provides some such examples, but others exist in Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.
58 “Global Public-Private Partnership Models: Options for Private
Participation in Public Education, International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group, 2007.
Reform Financing of Private Aided Schools
The system for public financing of private schools needs to be streamlined and made more transparent and accountable. For example, public financing of private schools on a year-to-year basis could be made conditional on achievement of specific outputs, such as minimum
levels of student and teacher attendance, student retention rates, and examination pass rates. Public financing could be transferred to school management committees, which would allocate funds as needed, rather than go directly to payment of teachers’ salaries. Private aided schools would also have to submit audited annual financial statements as a condition for continued funding.
One of the key features of the Dutch education system is freedom of education – freedom to establish schools, organize teaching and to determine the principles. This makes it one of the oldest – if not the oldest – national systems of school choice. Almost 70 percent of schools in the Netherlands are administered by private school boards, and all schools are government-funded equally. A family is entitled to choose any school, whether public or private, for its child and the state pays for the education. For each child enrolled, the schools receive a specified amount that is equivalent in both public and private schools; in addition schools receive funding that will cover specified amounts of teacher salaries and other expenses. While private schools can also charge ancillary fees, this right is severely limited and a school cannot refuse to admit a child if the parents cannot or do not want to pay this additional fee. Public schools also charge a small fee during the compulsory school stage. The schools are fully accountable towards the parents for the use of the fees collected. Additionally, schools are required to disseminate information to the public and school report cards ensure that information about quality in schools is available to all. Achievement in terms of learning outcomes is very high. The Netherlands does exceptionally well in international academic achievement tests. In the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) Netherlands is one of the world’s best performers and achieves relatively high scores in comparison to other countries even when controlling for level of national income (as well as expenditure per student). Thus, the system is not only high achieving, but also cost-effective, attaining good results at relatively low cost.
In 1999, the city of Bogotá, Colombia introduced an educational program called Concession Schools to broaden the coverage and quality of basic education, where private schools provide public education to children from the lowest income households in the city. The municipal government provides the infrastructure for concession schools, selects the students from poor neighborhoods, and pays a pre-agreed sum per full-time student per year (approximately $520 which is higher than what regular public schools receive, at $430 per student). Private providers, however, enjoy flexibility in terms of contracting administrative and teaching staff, and can freely implement their pedagogic model. The private school commits itself to performance standards (on quality and quantity) set by the municipal government. For instance, each school commits to surpass the mean score of standardized tests in similar schools. These schools are built in extremely poor areas of the city and in areas where the demand for basic education is higher than the city’s supply. Children in these poor zones, in general, face several problems, both physical and psychological. Given these difficulties, one of the main objectives of the concession schools is to provide an environment of affection and psychological counseling to students. Several concession schools have their own food program, which complements the public school feeding program. In addition, concession schools work closely with the community in which they operate. Several of them have an open door policy during weekends, and encourage family visits on a regular basis. Six years into the program the concession schools are performing very well. Rigorous impact evaluation shows that dropout rates in concession schools are lower than in similar schools in the city. In addition, test scores from concessions schools are higher than scores in similar public schools.
Source: Harry Patrinos, World Bank.