How Educational Policies Are Adopted in Developing Countries: The Case of Ghana’s Proposed Public-Private Partnerships in Education

Abstract

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are not new. But they have for a long time been limited to sectors such as energy, water, transportation, and construction, amongst others (Verger & Moschetti, 2016). Despite their popularity and the enthusiasm with which they are circularised, their extension "...into social policy areas such as health and education is more recent and is arguably one of the most significant trends in public finance in the past decade" (LaRocque, 2008, p. 9). One of the reasons for this may be because the "...task of promoting diversity in what was formerly a state monopoly is neither easy nor is it universally welcomed" (Patrinos & Soale, 2007, p.70). In developing countries, in particular, the monopoly of the state over the provision of education may still be justified because of market failures and equity concerns. However, governments in these countries lack the capacity to deliver accessible and quality education. Yet, there is the exigency, both locally and globally, to ensure universal access to education. It is argued that PPPs designed specifically for developing countries, is one of the policy options that could potentially assist them to meet this human rights imperative of universal access (Patrinos, Barrera-Osorio & Guáqueta, 2009). While different models of PPPs have been put into practice for some time in the advanced economies, they appear to be gradually promoted in developing countries, crammed with inefficiencies in education delivery and, therefore, embracing almost any policy that promises to improve their systems. It is apparent that in these countries, PPPs are also promoted by external institutions such as the World Bank and other institutions with neoliberal undercurrents. The recent case of Liberia, amongst others, is an example. While the role of these institutions in the spread of PPPs in developing countries is unambiguous, little is known about how they are actually promoted and adopted. The case of Ghana, one of the latest countries to adopt education PPP, illustrates this difficulty of understanding the PPP adoption process. The PPP reform is captured in the third Education Strategic Plan (ESP-2018-2030). This document consists of a number of reforms that are supposed to guide the direction and activities of the education sector from now until 2030. The PPP which is a management model, and which is to start in September (2019), is one "...that will be piloted in the short to medium term to consider whether they merit a scale-up effort to contribute to sector development..." (MoE, 2019a, p. 19). However, there are dissenting voices against the policy, raising questions about how it was adopted. On account of the mistiness surrounding its adoption, this paper seeks to filter and understand the dominant