Public-private partnership (PPP) for establishing and managing schools

Public-private partnership (PPP) a fashionable slogan in new development strategies, particularly over the last couple of decades.
To tap private resources and to encourage the active participation of the private sector in national development.
public resources are projected to be inadequate to meet needs-so to utilize the private sector’s assets
PPP already being adopted in several infrastructure development sectors, such as the development of airports, railways, roads, and so on.
The policy initiatives are no longer confined to these; they are being extended to human development sectors such as education and health.

PPP in Education

PPP has been proposed as an important strategy in the Eleventh Five Year Plan.
Setting up of 6,000 new model schools in secondary education, affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education. Of these, 2500 are to be under the PPP model.
The intention is to set up these schools in the backward regions and remote areas where good schooling facilities do not exist, so that quality education is accessible in the backward regions as well.

The Planning Commission in consultation with the private sector, these schools will be set up by 2014 and will have the capacity to educate 65 lakh students.
25 lakh will be from the deprived sections.
Each school will have about 2,500 students
1,000 of whom will be from deprived sections and charged a token fee.
50 % of 1,000 students will be from the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes paying a monthly fee of Rs.25 each.
The rest of the children, who will be from other deprived sections — non-income tax paying families — will be required to pay a fee of Rs.50 a month .

The remaining costs of these students, estimated to be Rs.1,000 to Rs.1,200 a head per month, will be reimbursed by the Union government to the schools. It is estimated that the government will have to pay Rs.10,500 crore until 2017. The amount is likely to go up with escalating prices, in general, and increasing costs of education, in particular.
Over and above this, the schools may get access to relevant funds from the Centre and the State governments under different schemes. The schools will be free to admit anyone to the remaining 1,500 seats and charge any amount of fee.

Corporate companies with a minimum net worth of Rs.25 lakh are eligible to set up schools under this model.
Each entity should deposit Rs.50 lakh with the government for the first school it proposes to set up, and Rs.25 lakh per additional school.
Each can set up as many as 25 schools. Non-profit companies with prior experience in education need to deposit Rs.25 lakh for each school. The schools will need to have the sort of infrastructure available in the best private schools.

Questions to ponder over....

Will this PPP model be useful ? How ?
What would be unexpected outcomes of implementation of such model?
Is there any other model already available? Find out.
Is government withdrawing its hands from providing educational facilities to people ?

Read More ……

http://www.education.nic.in/
http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article437492.ece?homepage=true