MANILA - A better partnership between the government and the private sector is key to improving education in any developing country, a World Bank report said.

In a study entitled "The Role and Impact of Public-Private Partnerships in Education," the multilateral lender said government initiatives aimed towards accessible, high-quality education can be enhanced with the help of programs and resources from the private sector.

"There are ways in which the public and private sectors can join together to complement each others' strengths in providing education services and helping developing countries to meet the millennium development goals for education and to improve learnings outcomes," World Bank Lead Education Economist Harry Anthony Patrinos said in a statement. Patrinos is also one of the authors of the recently released World Bank report.

Aside from philanthrophic activities and high-engagement ventures, Patrinos said private organizations can support the public sector by constructing, managing, or maintaining infrastructure. He said they can also operate and manage a public school, give teacher trainings, and help in curriculum design, among many others.

According to the World Bank study, the Philippines is one of the developing countries that have encouraged the expansion of the private school sector by recognizing it explicitly in legislation.

The multilateral lender added that the Philippine government has been successful in using a voluntary accreditation system for private schools and higher education institutions to assure quality in both the public and private sectors.

On top of these, the World Bank cited the country's Center for Educational Measurement for tracking the education performance of schools and governments by providing testing and assessment services.

"Well-designed quality assurance mechanisms can provide consumers, providers, and government officials with valuable information on the performance of private schools and ensure that providers are meeting quality standards," Patrinos said.

"In the Philippines, you will truly sense that people understand the saying 'It takes a village to raise a child.' Improved access to quality education is an important government objective that the World Bank supports in its country assistance strategy and if the policies for private sector participation are further enhanced, I believe that goal will be reached sooner," World Bank sector director for human development Emmanuel Jimenez said.

To further improve public-private partnerships (PPP), the World Bank also recommended the following:

• Include output specifications that define performance standards and facilitate the measurement and tracking of quality and school efficiency. Performance indicators can be quantitative, such as standardized tests or enrolment figures, or qualitative, such as school and parent surveys or school inspections.
• Define operating requirements and performance standards that private schools and operators should follow. Private schools should meet eligibility criteria to receive public funding (such as infrastructure and staff requirements), follow national curricula, and meet performance benchmarks.
• Reward innovation and quality improvements. One way to reward schools is to provide monetary awards for good performance. Conversely, sanctions for poor performance should include the revoking of any subsidies.
• Help private schools to deliver high-quality education and accompany voucher programs with capacity-building interventions. Some private schools lack the capacity to improve the quality of the education that they provide because their teachers lack qualifications, the schools lack the resources to buy materials and textbooks, and school management is not aware of the most effective teaching techniques and management processes.
• Establish a specialized group of authorities to manage PPP programs and the flow of funds from the government to private schools, and to enforce qualifying criteria and regulations.