Nolene van Tonder | Client Director | Canback Consulting | mail me |
Despite education taking up the lion’s share of national budgetary spending in South Africa, it is disheartening to still see stories about broken pit toilets, leaking roofs and unqualified teachers. Some stories lament how schools which were built in 1994 still have three pit toilets and only one tap, with parents and teachers making improvements using their own funds.
Further reports of high teacher absenteeism and low actual teaching times should be raising further alarm bells. Some reports note certain grades do not even have a maths teacher, for instance, while many teachers have been found to be unqualified to teach the subjects they teach.
Administrative inefficiencies
This list goes on, but the tragedy is that the money is there to drive change. According to the February Budget, the education infrastructure grant is allocated R34.3 billion over the upcoming three-year spending period to build new schools and maintain schooling infrastructure.
An additional R2.8 billion is allocated to the school infrastructure backlogs grant to replace pit latrines at over 2,400 schools. This grant will also replace 147 inappropriate and unsafe schools and provide water to 352 schools. Among other expenditure, an amount of R19 billion is provided for learner and teacher support material.
This cannot come soon enough as administrative inefficiencies and the focus on playing catch up left by the legacy of apartheid has, of course, hamstrung the government in meeting educational demand, especially from an infrastructure perspective.
A further challenge is the lack of quality education for all learners across the spectrum, which also needs urgent attention.
Time to build skills at a faster pace
There is little doubt a revised educational model can equip South Africa for the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution if skills capabilities are built at a faster pace to address the shortage in the formal sector.
For instance, South Africa has not even begun to scratch the surface of how ICT can be harnessed to increase the quality of education. The rest of the world has realised this and has already adopted revised education models, with great success, and it would be foolhardy to continue ignoring the benefits this can hold for the future of human capital and economy.
While the refrain may be heard that private schools are only available and affordable to the elite, very little thought is being given to partnering with the private sector to offer quality education to all.
If nothing is done, the private sector will have to keep stepping in to fill the gaps, yet it would make far more sense for the public and private sectors to work together.
It is notable that in the 2018/9 annual performance plan by the education department, it expects to have replaced 50 inappropriate and unsafe schools with newly built schools and provide water to 325 schools and sanitation to 286 schools.
Any moves in the right direction need to be applauded, but there is clearly a long, arduous road ahead as not enough schools are being built to keep up with demand across the country. The number of new schools being built is simply not keeping pace with the number of schools being closed nationally (897 between 2009 and 2017).
Both private and government schools in the South African ecosystem need to work to address the pressing issues of lack of infrastructure and access to schools in areas with high demand and overcrowding.
A hybrid model should, in our view, be investigated that harnesses the strengths that only public-private partnerships (PPPs) can bring.
Companies like Future Nation Schools, Curro and Spark are already reducing the cost of private education and prove that alternative models can be accessible to the greater populous.
Other models are available for exploration that can make quality education a reality for most learners, freeing up money for development in exciting new areas.
While education is an emotive issue often used by politicians to stir up controversy, PPPs should not be seen as a threat to unions and ideology; instead, it can become an opportunity to harness the best from each sector while creating jobs.
It is well documented that our education is of poor quality and is not equipping our youth with the necessary skills, with the latest World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report for 2018 reflecting SA’s plight – it has slipped from 47 in 2016 to 61 in 2017 and a concerning 67 out of 140 countries surveyed in the latest report.
Notably, on skills, SA ranks poorly in 84th place. Even worse, it is 107 on the pupil to teacher ratios in primary education and for digital skills, the SA ranks only 116th.
We need to cross our rubicon
I believe we truly need to ‘cross that rubicon’ on skills and education and embrace alternative models that deliver better results than this.
This does not mean that government will not play a key role; in fact, it will remain the main financier of education and the governing body of education, but it will have to strengthen its capabilities in planning, evaluation and monitoring to ensure quality is delivered and desired outputs are achieved.
The World Bank defines PPP as an innovative organisational and financial solution that emerged from the cooperation between the public and private sector with a view to supplementing the government’s public response to social needs in a specific sector, area or region.
It is a solution driven approach with measurable outcomes and accountability and requires political will from the government. Success depends on the commitment and strong institutions and accountability.
Furthermore, the World Economic Forum states that PPPs are known to be a powerful tool to deliver on major projects, especially infrastructure. However, education and healthcare can also benefit from these types of partnerships.
PPPs have proven to be a highly successful model and various forms have shown positive results in both emerging and mature markets. In developing countries like Brazil, India and Colombia, PPPs through semi-privatisation have particularly benefited poor communities and resulted in increased access to quality schools as well as an increase in results obtained by poor learners.
These benefits to communities can become a reality for South African learners should our leadership find the political will to collaborate with the private sector, academics, communities and NGOs to ensure that quality education becomes a reality for all, including poor communities.
The private sector is playing an increasing role in education globally, both in developing and developed countries. PPP in education in South Africa is at the emerging phase where private schools coexist with public schools and different models along the spectrum can exist, including where functions are completely integrated.
In Latin countries like Colombia and Brazil, PPPs have been successfully implemented, especially in areas where equal access to quality services has been lacking and demand for schools exceeds supply.
South Africa can take learnings from these countries and implement models, suitable to our educational and socioeconomic needs, while still monitoring and evaluating the results achieved by both the private sector partners and the learners, as the criteria are determined beforehand.
Numerous models are available, from concession to charter schools and BRAC schools. BRAC schools, popular in Bangladesh for example, provide non-formal schooling, vocational training for adults and women and core subjects like maths, English and social studies to those communities that are left out of the formal education system.
The concept of PPP is certainly proving to have positive outcomes for communities and learners the like.
Concession schools, which are fully funded by the state but privately run, is another model to consider. Concession schools in Bogota, Columbia, came into existence where the demand for schools outstripped supply and a need existed to broaden coverage and quality of education.
The government provided the infrastructure, but private schools are contracted to provide education for preselected students. These private schools, in turn, are flexible to contract teachers, management and implement their own teaching methods, yet commit themselves to performance standards.
According to the World Economic Forum, contrasts between government schools and concession schools were sharp, as demand for admission to concession schools increased, dropout rates were lower than government schools, infrastructure was well maintained and community involvement – including adult education classes – was high.
Analysis of results concluded that test scores in math and reading were better than government schools and results were higher in general. Ultimately, the learners that graduated from concession are more able to access higher education than the average learner completing high school at a government facility.
Bogota, Columbia piloted this program in 1999 and grew to 25 by 2014. The project was also rolled out to 20 additional cities nationally to serve 60,000 additional learners. In 2016, the Bogota City Council agreed to construct an additional 15 schools to serve an additional 14,850 learners.
Charter schools impress
Charter schools, meanwhile, offer a slightly different model with equally impressive results. They have greater flexibility in their operations, in return for greater accountability for performance to the government.
The ‘charter’ establishing each school is a performance contract detailing the school’s mission, program, students served, methods of assessment, performance goals including academic and financial performance and organisational stability.
Generally, these schools are chartered by parents, community leaders, social entrepreneurs and businesses and are considered schools of choice, meaning parents choose them for their children. However, nothing prevents this model to be implemented and managed by the private sector.
Charter schools are generally ‘no-fee’ schools and funding are provided ‘on a per learner basis’ by the state. What is significant about this model is that education standards are higher, teachers are committed, and again learners achieve higher academic results than those of government schools.
The driving factor behind this model is that better results attract more learners and thus creates a competitive environment for schools. Charter schools are common in the US, Chile, New Zealand, Norway, Hong Kong and Colombia.
In 2016/17 there were more than 6,900 charter schools in the US, with an estimated 3.1 million learners enrolled in these schools. Enrolled increased by 7% during this period, illustrating the demand for a better-quality education.
Variations of PPP are also possible, where the government can outsource a combination or all elements of management, professional, support service, operational services, educational services or facility services. Research by the World Bank highlights that the private sector yields better efficiencies, especially with infrastructure development.
PPPs will bring alternative operations to the education system and private involvement creates competition and impact on the cost of education. Furthermore, the quality framework managed by the Department of Education and the provincial education department will ensure that learners in all areas, including poor communities, can have access to these schools and that standards are maintained.
According to the World Bank, Finland is a prime example of successful PPPs where 97% of learners are enrolled into government schools and the country has been a top performer on the OECD’s in international student assessments (PISA). The education system in Finland is managed through PPPs, with schools having strong autonomy and highly accountable to the government for performance.
Raise standards and create jobs
It is clearly possible for South Africa’s department of education to effectively and efficiently invest their budgets through PPPs while increasing access to schools in areas where it is most needed, raising the standards of education and creating jobs in the process.
While open tenders create transparency, partnerships also give the government access to skill sets in the public sector and experts from NGOs and academia.
The development of innovative school models will alleviate pressure by plugging the infrastructure rollout gap, with risks being shared and results closely managed and monitored.
The greatest challenge to successful partnerships, however, will be the government’s willingness to let go of its hold on education to embrace a solution beneficial to our youth.
Empirical evidence suggests that education systems in which schools are publicly funded, but privately operated are associated with better student performance. We should embrace it before it’s too late to give our future generation a fair chance at finding that job of their dreams, or any work at all.
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