Evidence from Public-Private Partnership in the Offinso North District

Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Vol. 5, No. 2, 2019, pp. 70-76 http://www.aiscience.org/journal/jssh ISSN: 2381-7763 (Print); ISSN: 2381-7771 (Online) Performance Appraisal and Institutional Effectiveness for Quality Education Delivery in Ghana: Evidence from Public-Private Partnership in the Offinso North District Saeed Adam 1, Anthony Bordoh 2, *, Opoku Mensah Michael 3 1Department of Geography and Rural Development, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana 2Department of Social Science, Enchi College of Education, Enchi, Ghana 3Department of Planning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana Abstract The government of Ghana has been the leading provider of education complemented by some few private educational facilities usually located in urban areas. However, the state has not been able to deliver quality education to all its citizens. It has, therefore, become eminent that extra hands are required in the provision of education in Ghana. The private sector has constantly been cited as the best candidate to partner the government in the delivery of education. This study, therefore, looked at the effect of Public-Private Partnership on the delivery of quality education in Ghana, the study of the Offinso North District. The research was conducted using a multi-strategy approach. A case study research design was employed. Purposive and Convenient sampling techniques were used to select 34 respondents for interviews and focus group discussions. One hundred (100) households were also selected using convenient sampling technique and were administered questionnaires. The researchers used Microsoft Excel to generate quantitative data to aid analysis. The qualitative data were also analysed using grounded theory and thematic analysis. The study showed that there exists a large scale partnership between the state and the non-state actors in the provision of quality education in the Offinso North District. The support of the private partners has hugely improved the level of school amenities in the district. The support has also started yielding dividend on the performance of schools in the district. The study recommended that concerns of local community groups that are Genuine and Realistic to public-private partnership should be addressed, and again the government should augment the private sector's effort in the provision of amenities to schools under partnership. Keywords Performance Appraisal, Institutional Effectiveness, Quality Education; Public-Private Partnership, Offinso North District, Ghana Received: January 29, 2019 / Accepted: March 19, 2019 / Published online: April 10, 2019 @ 2019 The Authors. Published by American Institute of Science. This Open Access article is under the CC BY license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ combination of resources from the public and private sectors 1. Introduction in the accomplishment of traditional state activities like education, health and sanitation [5]. The common The term 'Public-Private Partnership' has been variously denominator of this collaboration is the pooling of resources defined by different authors. In this work, however, Public- (technical, financial, human and intangibles like information Private Partnership has been used in reference to the and political support) from the state and non-state actors in * Corresponding author E-mail address: 71 Saeed Adam et al. : Performance Appraisal and Institutional Effectiveness for Quality Education Delivery in Ghana: Evidence from Public-Private Partnership in the Offinso North District the achievement of desired social goals [4]. This study Region. In order to make high-quality education accessible to predominantly looked at partnerships between the public and marginalized groups and rural communities in the Offinso private sectors in the provision of quality education in Ghana. North District, some local groups within the communities Partnership between public agencies and private took the initiative by starting their own schools; and later called on the Ghana Education Service to supply them with organisations to find answers to societal challenges has become rampant in recent years both in advanced and teachers and other teaching and learning materials. This study developing economies [12]. The economic crisis in the 1970s sought to find out how these forms of partnerships between the public and private/citizen-based organizations have and 1980s coupled with the useful experience derived from affected the delivery of quality education in the Offinso the success of market-friendly economies have jointly North District. The study was guided by this research produced what many refer to as a redefinition of the role of the state [1]. The borders between the state and the market question-how does Public-Private Partnership influence the have been withdrawn [4]. This is because some important Performance of Quality Education Delivery in the Offinso North District of Ghana. activities that used to be performed by the state are now in the hands of private providers; either for-profit or not-for- profit. The state sector is again rearranging the allocation of 2. Conceptual Framework of responsibilities, via the decentralization of functions to local the Study and regional governments and subcontracting specific functions to private providers. The Conceptual Framework of the Study indicates that social Ironically, school enrolment rates are not encouraging in capital which represents societal networks created by most southern (developing) countries [9]. Equitable access to associational engagements such as voluntary association, education is becoming elusive to the majority of the people in family relations, norms of reciprocity and cooperation, and these countries. They further acknowledged that marginalized attitudes of social trust and respect shared by members of a groups like girls, low-income families and indigenous people community [10] is an important precondition for the have limited access to education in developing countries and formulation of synergies between the public and the private a good number of African and South Asian countries have not sectors in the delivery of quality education. Flexible legal attained universal coverage in primary education. Even framework, enabling political system and enabling public though enrolment rates in all southern countries appreciated policies are equally important factors necessary to bring from 81% in 1991 to 86% in 2006, the quality of education, about this partnership. When the Partnership is born, its as measured by standardized tests, has not been any better sustainability is dependent on the political environment that and this poses a major challenge. Most students from gave rise to the partnership at the initial stages [4]. Evidence southern countries who take part in international assessments from around the world shows that there exists a positive perform abysmally and this has been one of the reasons why relationship between private provision of education and the most low-income countries do not partake in such delivery of quality education. There is also evidence that assessments [9]. non-state actors are capable of rendering top class education at a reduced cost [9]. However, the success of Public Private In Ghana, the state is the major provider of educational Partnerships faces challenges like a lack of government services. However, the state has not been able to provide commitment and ownership, resistance from some quality education to all its citizens. It has, therefore, become stakeholders, privatization of education and hence reducing eminent that extra hands are required in the provision of government's control. quality education in the country. The private sector has increasingly been cited by development practitioners as the The study believes that Public-Private Partnership can help best candidate to complement government's effort in the improve school amenities and improve the quality of provision of educational services. This is because, evidence teaching and learning, giving rise to better academic abound to show that the private sector is equally capable of performance and hence quality education. However, for providing high-quality education at a reduced cost and hence; Public Private Partnership in education to be possible, there a marriage between the two sectors can be tailored to offer needs to be social capital that would bring the community quality education to marginalized groups [9]. members (non-state actors) together, flexible legal framework, enabling political system and public policy that One district that has made great strive towards partnering enables the private sector to contribute to the delivery of with non-state actors in the provision of quality education to goods and services, as shown in figure 1. its populace in Ghana is the Offinso North District of Ashanti Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Vol. 5, No. 2, 2019, pp. 70-76 72 Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of the Study. Offinso North District Director of Education, District Co- 3. Methodology ordinator of the Global Partnership for Education Grant (GPEG), the Queen Mother of Nkenkaasu, two Elders from This study adopted the mixed-method strategy but with more Nkenkaasu Traditional Council, two members of staff of emphasis on the qualitative method. The quantitative aspect Nkenkaasu Town Council, the Headmaster of Nkenkaasu of the study was more of descriptive statistics. The reason for Senior

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