The Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Kapil Sibal has said that the setting up of schools in the PPP mode is being encouraged, especially in semi-urban or semi-rural areas, where despite the mushrooming of private schools, their quality level at present needs much to be desired. We will ensure that in the PPP model that we adopt, we are able to provide greater access and quality, so that these schools can become the benchmarks for private schools, he said. He was speaking at the Session on “Private Participation in Health and Education” at a Conference organized by the Planning Commission, “Building Infrastructure – Opportunities & Challenges.”
Shri Sibal said that Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in education in their simplest form can broadly be at three levels. He stated that at the simplest level, the building of infrastructure for schools and colleges can be outsourced to the private sector through its own resources and could be paid for by the public sector on an annuity basis, subject to satisfactory performance to be judged by an ‘independent’ evaluation mechanism. He said, “This will have the advantage of mitigating government capex so that extensive infrastructure can be built very quickly. The second advantage would be the application of the “no service no payment” principle, so that the standards of maintenance always remain high. Thirdly, innovative and cost effective building designs can be deployed through private sector initiatives”.
The Minister said that the second mode could be to outsource in PPP the maintenance of buildings, non-educational services like school transport, maintenance of gardens, running of school canteen etc. He pointed out that the third model could be that all educational services could be provided under PPP, so that the private sector can run a school or college and get paid on the basis of the number of students sponsored by Government subject to fulfillment of certain performance criteria like examination results, students and teachers’ attendance, reduction of dropout rate, excellence in co-curricular activities etc.
The HRD Minister pointed out that the refurbishing of older schools belonging to State governments through the PPP mode is being considered and that State Governments can avoid budget constraints for creating educational infrastructure through this method. At the level of the Central Government, entrusting construction and maintenance of buildings of Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas through PPP is being considered, he said.
Shri Sibal underlined that the Scheme of ‘ICT in Schools’ is largely being implemented through PPP under which the private sector has provided ICT infrastructure in schools and maintains it for a period of five years and secures payment on a quarterly basis based on the usage and availability of ICT facilities. As this has significantly improved the performance of ICT infrastructure in schools and saved expenditure in outright purchase and installation of IT infrastructure, we have increased the outreach of the ‘ICT in schools’ programme to over 1 lakh schools, he stated.
Shri Sibal said that Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in education in their simplest form can broadly be at three levels. He stated that at the simplest level, the building of infrastructure for schools and colleges can be outsourced to the private sector through its own resources and could be paid for by the public sector on an annuity basis, subject to satisfactory performance to be judged by an ‘independent’ evaluation mechanism. He said, “This will have the advantage of mitigating government capex so that extensive infrastructure can be built very quickly. The second advantage would be the application of the “no service no payment” principle, so that the standards of maintenance always remain high. Thirdly, innovative and cost effective building designs can be deployed through private sector initiatives”.
The Minister said that the second mode could be to outsource in PPP the maintenance of buildings, non-educational services like school transport, maintenance of gardens, running of school canteen etc. He pointed out that the third model could be that all educational services could be provided under PPP, so that the private sector can run a school or college and get paid on the basis of the number of students sponsored by Government subject to fulfillment of certain performance criteria like examination results, students and teachers’ attendance, reduction of dropout rate, excellence in co-curricular activities etc.
The HRD Minister pointed out that the refurbishing of older schools belonging to State governments through the PPP mode is being considered and that State Governments can avoid budget constraints for creating educational infrastructure through this method. At the level of the Central Government, entrusting construction and maintenance of buildings of Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas through PPP is being considered, he said.
Shri Sibal underlined that the Scheme of ‘ICT in Schools’ is largely being implemented through PPP under which the private sector has provided ICT infrastructure in schools and maintains it for a period of five years and secures payment on a quarterly basis based on the usage and availability of ICT facilities. As this has significantly improved the performance of ICT infrastructure in schools and saved expenditure in outright purchase and installation of IT infrastructure, we have increased the outreach of the ‘ICT in schools’ programme to over 1 lakh schools, he stated.
No comments:
Post a Comment