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Effective
Resource Utilisation through Public-Private Partnership in Education
"In
Pakistan, developing and strengthening the partnership between public
and private sectors is crucial, not only to increase the coverage
of education, but also to ensure the provision of education in an
equitable manner." This was stated by Mr. Muneer Ahmed Badini, Secretary
Education, Government of Balochistan, who was the chief guest at
the Research and Policy Dialogue on Key Issues in Education, organised
by Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED)
in Quetta, from October 22 to 24, 2002.
The purpose of the dialogue was to discuss the policy and practices
of public-private partnerships in education across the country,
identify key lessons, issues and challenges, as well as advantages
of public-private partnerships. The dialogue also aimed to look
at ways in which working in partnerships will lead to better utilisation
of resources while reducing gender disparities and addressing equity
issues in education.
Addressing
an audience of researchers, policy-makers from all levels of government,
implementers from public and private sectors, and representatives
of NGOs, Mr. Badini, said that in order to make public and private
partnerships work effectively, it was important to assess and increase
capacity and resources, define the roles of all partners and develop
a mechanism for involvement of all stakeholders in the decision-making
process. "This can happen only when we come together and share our
various perspectives of partnerships and experiences gained, and
identify successful strategies and raise issues. "Mr Badini said
he acknowledged the initiative taken by AKU-IED in organising a
series of research and policy dialogues, which provided a forum
not only for sharing experiences but also for looking at the purpose
of developing partnerships, and identifying ways in which resources
and expertise available within each sector could be put to their
best use.
"The
concept of public engagement in policy and implementation matters
in Pakistan is more unheard of, and generally people remain uninformed
of the process. There is an immense need for deliberative dialogues
and sharing of experiences. This is because experiences gained and
lessons learnt could be utilised for further planning, making policy
recommendations and improving the implementation of education policies," Mr. Badini explained.
It
then becomes essential to set a trend where all the stakeholders
come forward to deliberate on issues in education, he continued. "Whether or not individuals engaged in the dialogue reach a consensus,
they do leave the dialogue with valuable first-hand knowledge of
perspectives and opinions other than their own. Also, it gives them
an understanding of the complexities of the issues," noted Mr. Badini.
Welcoming
the participants, Dr. Gordon Macleod, Director, AKU-IED, said, "The
dialogue might not necessarily achieve instant results, but it would
at least initiate a process of further interactions among researchers
and policy-makers. "Working as collaborators, they will identify
questions, find ways of doing research, and will work out how those
results might be used in the joint development of policies," he added.
Summarising
the dialogue, Dr. Iffat Farah, Head of Research and Policy Studies,
AKU-IED, recapitulated the themes of the discussions, and elaborated
on the existing models of partnership, highlighting key players
as being the public and private sectors, including Civil Societies,
NGOs, and the communities. She also stressed the need for the existing
public-private partnership models to be analysed and theorised looking
at their objectives and outcomes.
The
three days of deliberations, group presentations, panel discussions,
and question-and-answer sessions, encompassed issues ranging from
quality of education, teacher training, challenges in public-private
partnership, to effective resources utilisation and networking for
mobilisation of resources.
The
programme was the third of a series of dialogues on key issues in
education. Two similar dialogues had earlier been held in Karachi
and Islamabad in April and July 2002 respectively on the themes
of teacher education and decentralisation in education. Curriculum
review and reform will be the theme at the fourth research and policy
dialogue to be held in Peshawar in January 2003.
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