Focus Areas
Public-Private Partnerships in Education
Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are long-term contracts between governments and private sector entities in which the private sector provides infrastructure, assets, and/or takes over management of services traditionally funded and managed directly by governments.
Why are PPPs in education an issue?
Increased privatisation and marketisation: Involving the private sector in the provision of public services often leads to privatisation and marketisation as non-state actors pursue profits through cost cutting, extracting rents, maximising efficiency, and other strategies.
Effects on equity and inclusion: Unlike public schools, PPPs can select which learners they enroll in schools, often excluding students who are “expensive to educate,” such as students with additional needs.
Diminished teaching profession: PPPs often cut costs by hiring under qualified teachers for very low salaries, thus impacting educational opportunities while also compromising working conditions and teacher training and leading to overall de-professionalisation of the teaching profession.
Adherence to regulatory frameworks: PPPs often circumvent government regulatory frameworks such as hiring trained/qualified teachers and providing high quality infrastructure as governments struggle to regulate providers.
The Liberia Education Advancement Programme
This report explores key issues surrounding the Liberia Education Advancement Programme (LEAP), a PPP programme involving Bridge International Academies as the main provider. These issues include limited transparency, accountability, and availability of information and finances in the LEAP programme. It also shows how the lack of accountability adversely impacts schools and communities. The report concludes that PPPs are not sustainable solutions to education challenges; instead, greater investments in public education can help all learners.
Recommendations for policymakers
Our policy brief, Demystifying Education Public-Private Partnerships: What Every Policy Maker Should Know, endorsed by 57 organisations across the globe, provides guidance to support more informed and strategic decision-making regarding education PPPs, protect public resources, improve policy implementation and enhance accountability.
Key Resources on Public-Private Partnerships
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Demystifying Education Public-Private Partnerships: What Every Policymaker Should Know
Author(s): PEHRC
Language(s): English, Spanish and French
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False Promises: How delivering education through public-private partnerships risks fueling inequality instead of achieving quality education for all.
Author(s): Oxfam
Language(s): English
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![An orange icon of a paper with a pen next to it representing resources that are either policy briefs, policy papers or briefings.]()
Do Public Private Partnerships promote or hinder the Right to Education?
Author(s): Right to Education Initiative (RTE)
Language(s): English
