PUBLIC-PRIVATE partnerships (PPPs) in school ” especially primary ” education became fashionable in the new millennium after representatives of 189 countries worldwide signed the Millennium Declaration of the United Nations in New York in the year 2000. One of the Millennium Development Goals which topped the declaration was œall children in primary school and learning, by the year 2015. Back home in India, initial enthusiasm for PPPs abated after it became clear that for the education ministries and bureaucracies, PPPs meant relationships in which education entrepreneurs, NGOs and philanthropists are expected to pour money into government schemes and ask no questions, while establishment bureaucrats carried on business as usual which includes routine skimming off cuts and commissions. The charms of the charter school model under which governments outsource schools to private educators or NGOs, transferring the expenditure incurred per school and per student ” currently 800 charter schools with an aggregate enrolment of 100,000 students are operational in the US ” with government ensuring they function as per the ˜charter™ or agreement, seems to have no appeal for state governments. Nevertheless, due to the determined efforts of a few dedicated educators and NGOs, some less than equal PPPs ” essentially philanthropic initiatives rather than equal and self-sustaining partnerships ” are flourishing in pockets across the country. Edited and abbreviated reports outlining the activities of two PPP initiatives in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra ” filed by EducationWorld correspondents in Mumbai and Chennai ” are presented below. JK Foundation, Chennai PROMOTED BY J. JAYAKRISHNAN, founder and managing director of the Chennai-based J.K. Group which comprises E5 Properties Pvt. Ltd, J.K. Properties & Consultancy, Karyakarpa Organic Farms, and E5 Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, the J.K. Foundation (JKF, estb. 2012) is the philanthropic arm of the J.K. Group. For ten years before the foundation was registered Jayakrishnan sponsored the education of poor children and supported elderly citizens in old age homes. However, since 2012, JKF has shifted focus to aiding government, municipal and panchayat schools in the educationally backward districts of Tamil Nadu under the PPP model. Thus far JKF has signed PPP agreements with 92 government and local administration schools benefiting over 6,000 students statewide. History. In 2008 the Tamil Nadu government initiated a School Improvement Scheme under which NGOs, trusts and individuals were invited to sign agreements with the state and local governments to ˜adopt™ government schools to scale up their infrastructure and improve teaching-learning standards. In the academic year 2012-13, JKF adopted 20 government schools in the backward district of Vizhupuram where less than 50 percent of students passed the state board class XII school-leaving exam. The adopted schools were upgraded with improved infrastructure and toilet facilities, 88 graduate teachers were appointed, and healthy meals provided to students in addition to remedial education and in-service teacher training. Direct speech. œThis intervention has proved very successful. In 2012-13 the pass percentage of class XII students in the adopted schools ranged from 60-90 percent. Moreover, three students of adopted schools were top-ranked statewide in…
