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Public-private partnerships (PPPs) in education can boost the quality of and access to education, which, in turn, can provide significant benefits to students, through improved learning, and to society as a whole, through gains to GDP over a student’s lifetime. PPPs can range from construction and upgrading of school buildings to outsourcing of school management, government purchasing programs, and voucher programs. Public subsidies to existing private schools or to fund student places are the most common PPP.

From 1990 to 2003, private enrollment grew significantly in most Arab states, as shown in the tables, below. In 2003, 21 percent of elementary school students were enrolled in private schools, on average, with the high being more than 60 percent in Lebanon, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, and the low less than 5 percent in Algeria and the Republic of Yemen. At the secondary and tertiary school levels, averages were 14 percent and 21 percent, respectively, compared with roughly 25 percent and 50 percent for countries in East Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, respectively. At the tertiary level, half or more of total enrollment was private in Lebanon and in the West Bank and Gaza.

Growing Enrollment in Private Schools, Arab Countries, 1990 and 2003 (% of total)

Source: World Bank, 2008.

Challenges and Opportunities for PPPs in Education – Issues and Evidence

PPPs can leverage the private sector’s skills, resources, and specialized knowledge in four ways, namely by:

1. Creating competition in education services provision
2. Providing greater flexibility than the public sector in service provision, in areas such as teacher contracting
3. Allowing for open bidding and by specifying outcomes required for education services
4. Freeing up resources to devote to schooling so as to enable greater risk sharing between the public and private sectors.

However, the PPP design, regulatory framework, enabling environment, and the public sector’s capacity to implement and monitor outcomes have a significant impact on how much a PPP can achieve.

Are PPPs good for education? There is large body of literature that argues that PPPs are less appropriate for education services for several reasons, namely because they: reduce government control over a public service; can increase socioeconomic segregation if better prepared students end up self-selecting into high-quality schools; and can leave poorer students behind in deteriorating public schools that lose the support of more educated parents. Moreover, teachers and other public employees and unions tend to oppose PPPs on the basis of job stability. In some cases, PPP expansion has created opportunities for corruption where government accountability and control are low.

Looking at the empirical evidence, however, the overall impact of PPPs in education is promising. Private providers can raise efficiency and choice in education supply; enhance access to education, particularly for poorly served households; and contribute to higher test scores when students reach the end of basic education. Vouchers can improve academic outcomes, especially for the poor. While not all situations are suitable for PPPs, successful outcomes often result when end users are involved in PPP conceptualization, planning, and implementation in an environment of strong regulations and accountability.

Read Part II

Julia Devlin is nonresident senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings Institution. She formerly worked as consultant at the World Bank Group and as a lecturer in economics at the University of Virginia. Her focus is economic development, private sector development, energy and trade in the Middle East and North Africa. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics.