Public-Private Partnerships in Education A Viable Model for Liberia May 2015

PPP contract management Two models of service delivery PPP have been tried across the globe; vouchers and contract management Contract Management: non-state organisations run and are held accountable for the performance of government schools  Often intended to raise quality rather than increase access  Evidence from the US, UK and Colombia shows schools can increase quality although mixed results and dependent on operator quality  Potential to reform the existing public sector, rather than to replace it with a private system.

Raising school quality ) School management PPPs are often expressly implemented with desire to target low performance and have shown ability to raise outcomes  Charter schools (US), Academies (UK), Concession schools (Colombia) Charter-style systems are often posited as ‘innovation labs’ and are seen as a means to test interventions which can then be fed into the wider system Estimates from the UK and US suggest when charter-style PPPs reach 5% of total schools spill-over effects to the wider system are experienced

Can a PPP address the challenges in Liberia? The following priorities are based on discussions with AGI as well as reviewing the MoE Operational Plan and Education Sector Plan In light of the recent Ebola crisis we anticipate priorities will have shifted and have therefore used reports from INGOs to supplement official documents regarding priorities and bottlenecks This is an initial draft and further discussion and detailed scoping is required

Stronger accountability World Development Report 2004 : Making Services Work for Poor People highlights the importance of strengthening accountability systems when seeking to improve public services The report highlights PPPs as having the potential to raise quality through more direct levels of accountability between providers, policymakers, and the public. Non-state providers can be placed under more direct levels of accountability than in a system of public provision, where parents have limited choice and public employees may be unwilling to enforce strong oversight of their own provision. When government funding is tied to accountability standards, it creates an incentive for schools to perform more efficiently A narrowed remit allows the government to hold PPP schools to account more effectively than in traditional models, and to focus on selecting the best possible provider.

Autonomy and decentralisation Research shows that privately managed schools produce positive results when combining increased levels school autonomy with high accountability mechanisms Non-state operators can be given autonomy, creating a plural system in which innovation is encouraged, thereby uncovering new ways of delivering services that can be shared and emulated McKinsey highlight greater school decision-making as a crucial step in improving a school system A recent LSE study of over 1,800 schools in eight countries found that that PPP schools are able to harness this increased autonomy and have significantly higher management scores than regular government schools and private schools Evidence from India, UK and the US show that PPP models have the potential to attract new expertise into public education sector

Building government capacity PPPs require effective government oversight and regulation PPPs are not simply a matter of government handing schools over to non-state actors: doing so would threaten long-term capacity and undermine democratic accountability However, they do offer governments the ability to focus capacity on a narrowed remit: policy making, standard setting and oversight In such a way PPP contracts offer governments the ability to capacity build in core areas when immediate human resource gaps threaten the ability of the state to provide quality education

Attracting philanthropic funding PPPs have been effective in bringing philanthropic funding into the public education system Originally UK academies had a sponsor who invested £2 million in their schools  Ark schools has an active philanthropic donor base who provide vital support to the children in our schools In the US the NGO the Charter School Growth Fund has committed over $185 million to support the creation of more than 260,000 new seats for low-income and minority students around the country Fe y Alegria bring charitable funding in partnership with the government to educate over 500,000 children across Latin America International donors have already expressed interest in funding new programmes in India, South Africa and Kenya Our work includes convening donors who are looking for high- impact philanthropic investments

High quality teacher training Allowing non-state actors to train and certify teachers can increase innovation and quality as well as raising the number of places  In the UK school-centred training schemes (a recent decentralised model) outperformed traditional training models in 2013  Teach for America (US) and Teach First (UK) are independent organisations credited with transforming the teacher labour market  Teach for All have a growing presence across Africa Operating partners in a contract management framework have a strong interest in the quality of teacher training and can partner with the government to raise the quality of teacher training  Muktangan (an Indian NGO school operator) has developed a teacher training programme credited with raising standards in their schools  Ark Schools has its own accredited teacher training system in the UK and our international team is working on training programmes in India and Uganda The role of the government in such a system remains critical: to set the standards and expectations of all training institutions and to quality assure.

Successful reform looks at the whole ecosystem Experience shows that isolated PPP reforms are likely to prove ineffective: meaningful change is achieved through targeted but broad reform such as seen in London In 2006 London was the second-worst region in England. By 2011, it was the highest-performing region in the country.  positive changes in the teacher labour market; the expansion of pro-poor Academies in the capital; and a ‘total systems approach’ to education. We believe that PPP’s are most effective when considered in relation to the broader ecosystem and ensuring appropriate accountability mechanisms and enabling environments are in place As a result when advising on PPP reform also we focus on:  Quality Assurance and school inspection  Effective data systems  Appropriate assessments

Ark’s Education Reform Practice: Ark has operated internationally since 2002 in the education, health and child protection sectors  We have worked in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Eastern Europe  Our PPP advise team is working with governments in Latin- America, Africa and Asia to design and implement public private partnerships for education  In the next 12 months we will work with governments in Kenya, South Africa and India to officially launch contract management PPP programmes  Our school quality assurance programme for Indian schools has been given support by the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, and will be rolled out to 120,000 schools by 2019 Helping catalyse education reform by providing support to governments looking for innovative solutions to improve learning.