The impact of the covid-19 pandemic has been devastating on most industries and like all other industries, educational institutes have seen a significant effect. Some reports suggest that the impact of covid-19 is going to be even larger than the 2008-09 financial crisis. The rapid spread of covid-19 has seen a high human cost and with the health care systems across the globe struggling to cope with it the cost is predicted to go even higher in the coming few years.
Even before the covid-19 pandemic struck us the education system in most developing and underdeveloped nations lacked far behind in meeting its goals. The general and standard targets for education seem far-fetched for the education industry post the pandemic. In addition to the earlier fundamental infrastructure needs schools, post-pandemic needs an up gradation to be technically well connected to face the similar future situation if any. There are many other challenges that educational institutes are facing post covid. To meet these challenges schools need investment and funds. Let us see the impact of the pandemic on different schools that have been developed under the PPP framework in this article by one of the leading PPP consulting firms in Dubai, Green Urbane.
Effects On Government Funding
Before the pandemic, the average spending of a high-income country was approximately around 43% of that of a low-income country. When the calculations were made on the entire education of a child then the government of a high-income nation spent a far greater amount on educating a child as compared to a low-income nation’s government. As a direct result of this, if the child attains the age of 18 years in a high-income country he would have attended an average of 13 years of school as compared to a low-income nation where the child would have attended only 8 years of school.
As a result of the pandemic, it is presumed by leading public-private partnership consulting firms in Dubai such as Green Urbane that government spending on education might get reduced in low-income and developing nations since the priority will be given to spending on health care systems. Many low-income nations have already put a cut on the education budget to compensate for spending on health care. As a result, it is highly anticipated that overall there will be a reduction in educated children and as a direct or indirect result, there will be a considerable impact on the GDP of a nation.
PPP Model in Education May Help Recover Education Losses
Many developing nations with good GDPs such as India have been keenly studying the effects of PPP on the education system. Before the covid-19 pandemic, various states in India had implemented PPP for the education system. The study phases demonstrated very good results for the schools funded through PPP and as a result of it various state and central governments in India are looking forward to funding more than 3500 schools all over the nation via the PPP model. Many PPP consulting firms in Dubai are of the view that governments in other nations such as Oman, Qatar, and other nations of even developed economies will come forward to implement a similar model and include PPP in the education system in their respective nations.
The Investment Opportunities in Vocational and Technical Education are Increased
Contrary to the extremely low-income countries developing nations with good GDPs are expected to increase their investment in the education sector in the coming years’ post covid. Apart from normal education, these countries are set to increase their expenditure on technical and vocational training in the coming years through PPP ventures. Most PPP Advisory Services in UAE are of opinion that as compared to low-income and high-income countries the countries with mid-income and fairly stable GDPS are set to manage and balance the pandemic fairly well.
With having an edge against other nations these countries will try to have a more skilled and trained labor force to beat future competitions. However, there are quite a few challenges to the overall implementation and rollout of all this swiftly and smoothly.
Concluding Lines
Opportunities for PPP in education are seen to be increased in nations with higher GDP and mid incomes revenues while in some parts it is estimated the spending on education will go lower. The success of positive collaboration in education post covid depends upon efforts from both public as well as the private sector. The chances of successful collaboration however increase when both public, as well as private players, hire PPP advisory firms for a successful PPP partnership.