A threat or opportunity? The human rights impact of public private partnerships in education in Uganda

• In Event: Are Public-Private Partnerships in Education Acceptable from a Human Rights Perspective?

Proposal

This presentation is based on a study conducted by the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER) that assesses the impact of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Uganda from a human rights perspective. PPPs in education have increasingly been implemented by governments around the world as a way of expanding access to quality education while still maintaining affordable expenditure—both for the public and private sector. Uganda had this very goal in mind when, in 2007, the government announced a PPP initiative through its Universal Secondary Education (USE) scheme that would effectively absorb the increasing number of students completing primary school as a result of the country’s 1997 Universal Primary Education policy. Specifically, the provision laid out a framework in which the government would pay a per-student capitation grant to private school providers (PPP schools) that agreed to enroll qualifying USE students at no additional charge.

From a human rights standpoint, Uganda is a signatory to a number of treaties at both regional and international levels, which guarantee the fulfillment, respect and protection of the right to education. Additionally, at the domestic level there are a number of legal and policy frameworks to ensure that the government upholds its obligations towards the right to education. Understanding the obligations of the state, the paper discusses the impact of PPPs on the right to education in Uganda.

The research findings suggest that the PPP program implemented through Uganda’s USE scheme may not be compliant with the human rights standards applicable to the right to education. Data collected illustrates that despite the overall increases in enrollment, equitable geographical access to education has not yet been achieved under the PPP program. Additionally, the data indicates that contrary to the PPP policy, PPP schools also exist in sub-counties in which there are already public schools; notwithstanding the fact that 608 sub-counties are still without a government secondary school.

The evidence further suggests that the PPP initiative has not succeeded in effectively reducing the significant obstacles impeding vulnerable and/or marginalized groups of students from accessing quality education. Moreover, it was found that the quality of education in many PPP schools is significantly compromised, due in part to what many have deemed an insufficient capitation grant as well as a widespread shortage of resources including but not restricted to learning materials, basic infrastructure, and qualified teachers. Lastly, the data points to significant accountability concerns in many PPP schools: current supervisory and regulatory mechanisms are both unclear and ineffective in many of the PPP schools examined, and a worrying number of PPP schools were found to be in contravention of their signed Memoranda of Understanding with little evidence of sanction or penalty for said breaches.

The paper recommends that Governments should:
- Phase out poor quality, low-fee, PPP schools; provide community schools with more support to meet the minimum standards; and encourage partnerships between PPP, community and not-for profit schools.
- Regulate fees (tuition and non-tuition) and any other financial charges by PPP schools, such as enforced compulsory boarding fees; sanctions for non-compliance should be strictly implemented.
- Develop a comprehensive policy on PPPs in education that ensures adherence to human rights standards by both the government and private actors at all stages of the PPP relationship. This also calls for strengthening of the national PPP law to include human rights safeguards at all stages.
- Introduce social impact assessments of PPP schools prior to government entering into partnership with private education providers, to ensure that the schools will be beneficial to the communities in which they are established.
- Enforce public participation at all stages of implementation of PPPs. This should include institutionalization of social accountability mechanisms such as social audits.

Author

• Salima Namusobya, Initiative for Economic and Social Rights (ISER)