Do public-private partnerships help to improve Brazilian education?

Responsible researcher: Eduarda Miller de Figueiredo

Article title: PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS: AN ALTERNATIVE FOR BRAZILIAN EDUCATION

Authors of the article: Rodrigo Nobre Fernandez, Taciane Coutinho da Rosa, André Carraro, Claudio Djissey Shikida and Áurea Regina Evangelista Soares Franco de Carvalho

Location of intervention: Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Sample size: 51 schools

Sector: Education

Type of intervention: Effects of Public-Private Partnerships on Education

Variable of main interest: Duration of infrastructure works

Assessment 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 look for alternatives for the execution of its services.

In this way, the Concessions Law ^[1] defines the provision of public services by the private sector for a determined period of time, allowing the allocation of project risks to both sectors. And from Federal Law No. 11,079/04, the rules for bidding and contracting PPPs were established, making public projects viable that were not economically viable just by charging users fees, in this way the public authority makes payments to the private a portion that remunerates the investments and operations of the private sector. The educational services provided through public-private partnerships can range from the construction, management and maintenance of spaces to pedagogical execution, therefore, an important option for education in the country (Patrinos, Barrera-Osorio and Guáqueta, 2009).

There are other ways of partnership between the public and private sectors in the educational sphere. Vouchers public financing 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 occurs because private schools have no incentive to lose voucher students and public schools have an incentive not to reduce the number of students enrolled, avoiding the loss of government resources. charter schools operate , which are public schools that provide free educational services to the population through a private agent, which receives public resources 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). Even with an increase in investment, public education continues to face obstacles that hinder the advancement of education in Brazil, given the lack of infrastructure, precarious teaching materials and low salary appreciation, for example. The consequence of this precariousness is demonstrated in the poor results obtained by Brazilians in the International Student Assessment Program (Pisa).

Figure 1: PPP project structuring stages

Source: Prepared by the authors of the article.

PPPs have a long life cycle, as shown in the figure above, which begins with the prioritization of the project by the public authorities and ends with the signing of the contract. Feasibility studies can be carried out in two ways:

1. i) directly: by the technical staff of the public body or through contracting.
2. ii) expression of interest procedure (PMI): where companies make studies available to the public authorities.

In the year the study was developed, there were several ongoing projects for PPPs in the country's education sector. In 2015 and 2016, projects began in Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso, indicating that the states are open to this type of contract after the positive results from Belo Horizonte were announced.

Policy Details

According to Patrinos, Barrera-Osorio and Guáqueta (2009), the most common alternatives for the PPP modality in education are:

1. i) Agreements between governments and private schools to provide education to low-income students in return for government financing of these students' costs.
2. ii) Programs in which the private sector provides infrastructure services while the government provides pedagogical services.
3. iii) Programs in which the private sector is responsible for management, that is, it manages the financial sector, long-term planning and personal sector.
4. iv) Programs to provide pedagogical services in public schools, through the offering of specializations to teachers.

A favorable aspect of PPP contracts is the possibility of sharing risks through a well-designed contract, which encourages increased efficiency by allocating risks to the agent with the greatest capacity to manage them.

Methodology Details

Even though there is recognition of the use of PPPs in the educational sector, there are still few studies that analyze the efficiency of this type of contract in this sector (Rodrigues, 2015). Seeking to begin filling this gap, the authors carry out a study on the public-private partnership signed 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 national policy goals. The selection of the private partner took place through a bidding process, in which the contract included the implementation of school infrastructure and the operation of non-pedagogical services for 20 years.

The decision for this contractual modality came about because, according to IFC (2012), the resources available in the municipality at the time met only 35% of the demand, with around 11 thousand children waiting for a place, making it impossible to manage new service contracts. construction and coordination of non-pedagogical services. In this way, the public-private partnership proved to be a viable solution to resolve the emergency vacancy situation, with quality and in the shortest time.

Figure 2: Services that were 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 grades were classified between 1 and 4, where 1 was failure to meet the expected goals and 4 was complete achievement of these goals. This measure is extremely important, since the value of the monthly consideration paid to the consortium is directly proportional to the performance in the index (Belo Horizonte, 2012).

 Results

With the public-private partnership, municipal early childhood education units (Umeis) were built in an average period of 11 months, that is, shorter than the average construction time through the traditional public sector model, which takes a period of 20 months. Therefore, the adoption of PPP represents a significant reduction in waiting time. The authors also observed that the PPP achieved a decrease in the level of uncertainty in relation to meeting the construction delivery date. Thus, the contract amendment in 2014 provided for the construction of 51 schools, all of which were delivered by December 2017.

Furthermore, a 25% increase in directors' exclusive attention to pedagogical activities was found, compared to the traditional model. The data also demonstrated that there were 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 students, it was not possible for the authors to carry out the measurement, since until now there was no measurement of the impact of the public policy studied, however the positive results in relation to infrastructure suggest possible positive externalities.

Public Policy Lessons

 The first PPP in the area of ​​education in Brazil demonstrates positive results, mainly in the agile infrastructure delivery capacity, encouraging discussion about expanding the contract for pedagogical services. In this way, the partnership between public and private agents could possibly provide 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, n. 52, 2019.

^[1] Federal Law No. 8,987/1995.