Principal investigator: Eduarda Miller de Figueiredo
Article title: Public-Private Partnerships: An Alternative for Brazilian Education
Article authors: Rodrigo Nobre Fernandez, Taciane Coutinho da Rosa, André Carraro, Claudio Djissey Shikida and Áurea Regina Evangelista Soares Franco de Carvalho
Location of the intervention: Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Sample size: 51 schools
Sector: Education
Type of intervention: Effects of Public-Private Partnerships on Education
Primary variable of interest: Duration of infrastructure works
Evaluation method: Others
Policy Problem
According to Fernandez et al (2014), investments in basic services were the responsibility of the public sector, but due to poor resource management, the public sector began to seek alternatives for the execution of its services.
Thus, the Concessions Law[1] This defines the provision of public services by the private sector for a determined period, allowing the allocation of project risks to both sectors. Federal Law No. 11.079/04 established the rules for bidding and contracting PPPs, enabling public projects that were not economically viable solely through user fees. In this way, the public sector pays the private sector a portion that remunerates investments and operations. The educational services offered through public-private partnerships can range from the construction, management, and maintenance of spaces to pedagogical execution; therefore, it is an important option for education in the country (Patrinos, Barrera-Osorio and Guáqueta, 2009).
There are other ways for the public and private sectors to partner in the educational sphere. vouchers These agreements are used by some countries as a type of contract between the government and private schools, where the government issues a certificate of public funding and the private school provides the educational service to the individual, allowing parents to choose the school their child will attend. This occurs in countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Colombia, Sweden, and Chile, where the possibility for parents to choose the school stimulates competitiveness between public and private education, improving educational quality. This happens because private schools have no incentive to lose [their students/seniors]. student vouchers And public schools have an incentive not to reduce the number of enrolled students, thus avoiding the loss of government resources. In the United States, schools operate... chartersThese are public schools that provide free educational services to the population through a private agent, who receives public funds from the government.
Assessment Context
Public education in Brazil is the largest provider of basic education, with 82% of students enrolled in public schools (Inep, 2017). Despite increased investment, public education continues to face obstacles that hinder the advancement of education in Brazil, such as a lack of infrastructure, poor teaching materials, and low salaries. The consequence of this precarious situation is demonstrated in the poor results obtained by Brazilians in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
Figure 1: Stages of structuring PPP projects
Source: Prepared by the authors of the article.
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have a long life cycle, as shown in the figure above, beginning with the prioritization of the project by the public authorities and ending with the signing of the contract. Feasibility studies can be carried out in two ways:
- i) directly: by the technical staff of the public body or through contracting.
- ii) Expression of Interest (EOI) procedure: where companies make studies available to the public authorities.
In the year the study was developed, there were several ongoing PPP projects in the country's education sector. In 2015 and 2016, projects were initiated in Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso, indicating that these states are receptive to this type of contract after the positive results from Belo Horizonte were publicized.
Policy Details
According to Patrinos, Barrera-Osorio and Guáqueta (2009), the most common alternatives for the PPP model in education are:
- i) Agreements between governments and private schools to provide education to low-income students in exchange for government funding of these students' costs.
- ii) Programs in which the private sector provides infrastructure services while the government provides educational services.
- iii) Programs in which the private sector is responsible for management, i.e., it administers the financial sector, long-term planning, and personnel sector.
- iv) Programs for providing educational services in public schools, through the offering of specializations to teachers.
One favorable aspect of PPP contracts is the possibility of risk sharing through a well-designed contract, which encourages increased efficiency by allocating risks to the agent with the greatest capacity to manage them.
Methodology Details
Although the use of PPPs in the education sector is recognized, there are still few studies analyzing the efficiency of this type of contract in this sector (Rodrigues, 2015). Seeking to begin filling this gap, the authors conduct a study on the public-private partnership established in the state of
In Brazil, the contract between sectors in the educational sphere began in Belo Horizonte/MG in July 2012, aiming to improve the municipal workforce and achieve the goals of national policies. The selection of the private partner occurred through a bidding process, in which the contract included the implementation of school infrastructure and operation of non-pedagogical services for 20 years.
The decision to use this type of contract arose because, according to the IFC (2012), the resources available in the municipality at the time only met 35% of the demand, with approximately 11 children waiting for a place, making it impossible to manage new contracts for construction services and coordination of non-pedagogical services. Therefore, the public-private partnership proved to be a viable solution to resolve the emergency situation of vacancies, with quality and in the shortest time possible.
Figure 2: Services that became the responsibility of the private sector in the PPP in BH.
Source: Prepared by the authors of the article.
A performance evaluation measure was developed, where scores were classified between 1 and 4, with 1 representing failure to meet the planned goals and 4 representing full achievement of these goals. This measure is extremely important, since the value of the monthly payment to the consortium is directly proportional to performance on the index (Belo Horizonte, 2012).
Results
Through public-private partnerships, municipal early childhood education units (Umeis) were built in an average period of 11 months, which is less than the average construction time using the traditional public sector model, which takes 20 months. Therefore, the adoption of PPPs represents a significant reduction in waiting time. The authors also observed that PPPs resulted in a decrease in the level of uncertainty regarding the meeting of the construction delivery date. Thus, the contractual addendum in 2014 stipulated the construction of 51 schools, all of which were delivered by December 2017.
Furthermore, a 25% increase in the directors' exclusive attention to pedagogical activities was found, compared to the traditional model. The data also demonstrated improvements and speed in service in the space maintenance system and the availability of hygiene, cleaning, linen, and laundry materials.
Regarding the educational quality of the students, the authors were unable to perform a measurement, since up to that point there was no assessment of the impact of the public policy studied; however, the positive results in relation to infrastructure suggest possible positive externalities.
Lessons in Public Policy
The first public-private partnership (PPP) in the education sector in Brazil is demonstrating positive results, particularly in its ability to deliver infrastructure quickly, encouraging discussion about expanding the contract to include pedagogical services. Therefore, this partnership between public and private entities may offer an alternative solution for the future of Brazilian education.
Reference
FERNANDEZ, Rodrigo Nobre et al. PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS: AN ALTERNATIVE FOR BRAZILIAN EDUCATION. Planning and Public Policies, no. 52, 2019.
[1] Federal Law No. 8.987/1995.
