NAPCS is pleased to launch a guest blog series which will feature contributions by leading international education experts. The goal of this series is to expose our readers to the challenges and successes of establishing charter schools in different parts of the world.
The role and purpose of education – particularly in the public sector – has changed drastically with the coming of the Information Age. What started out as a means to prepare youth to take over in a trade is now a much different beast saddled with seemingly insurmountable challenges and a distinct element of the unknown, not to mention expectations that have set it up as the panacea for all manner of national woes – national security and economic stability, just to name a couple. Today education is tasked with preparing students with the knowledge and skills they will need to use in jobs that do not even exist. A large enough undertaking for schools operating in the private sector, the scope of this task is exponentially greater in public schools educating the masses. In this context, the scope of the task is not only greater; it is also ESSENTIAL as nations seek ways to secure their place in the global economy moving forward. Looking to improve national education standards, the U.S. has been a global leader, drafting public charter school legislation in the mid-1990s and introducing the concepts such as parental choice, accountability, and competition in public education. In the years since, the U.S. charter school approach has been used as a reference for public-private partnership in education; some countries mirroring its approach, others setting out on their own to blaze their own path to raise standards. As a global education organization with 126 years of experience, SABIS® has been involved in the providing education in the public sector since 1995, when it was awarded the management of its first public charter school in Springfield, Massachusetts. Today, SABIS® manages nine charter schools and licenses its proprietary educational system to five others. SABIS® experience in public-private partnerships (PPP), however, is not limited to the U.S. We have accumulated valuable experience and perspective as participants in PPP projects around the world. The most promising PPP project that SABIS® is involved in – it may surprise you to learn – is in Kurdistan, the semi-autonomous region of northern Iraq, where SABIS® currently operates seven public schools in a project that originated in 2009. The Kurdish leadership at the time realized that spiraling public education costs were not yielding the desired results in the short or long term for the region. With surprisingly short school days, a degree of complacency among administrators, teachers, and staff, and no option for parental choice, there was room to improve the system. To address these issues, the Kurdish government sought out SABIS® and together developed a PPP model. SABIS® would take over existing K-2 or K-3 public schools, including staff, and provide training to staff in instructional methods as well as the English language. In contract periods of three to five years, SABIS® would manage the school, extending the grade levels offered each subsequent year, with the goal of instilling autonomy. The strength of this PPP comes in the fact that it is not saddled with unnecessary – and many times unfair – barriers to entry and hurdles that have marred other countries’ attempts at private sector engagement as a means to raise education standards. So what does the Kurdistan PPP have that others have missed the mark on? First, and most importantly, in Kurdistan private sector engagement in public education is approached as a true partnership. In Kurdistan, the private operator is allowed to operate in an environment of free enterprise, encouraging the principles of efficiency, accountability, and return on investment and transferring these benefits to schools and students. Second, unlike the public charter school model in the U.S., the operator is not hampered by legislation that imposes accountability through boards that do not have a skin in the game. The private operator is held fully accountable, flourishing by its own hand or floundering its way out of a job as dissatisfied parents withdraw their children from the school. Third, unlike public-private partnerships attempted in other countries, in Kurdistan the private operator is not distracted from the job of raising standards by nationally hired “experts” who have a financial incentive to continually move the yard-stick they require operators to measure up to. Fourth, in Kurdistan, the funding formula is respected. Funding of the school operation is taken care of by the government based on a mutually-approved budget. The operator is paid for its services from within the budget, allowing the operator to concentrate solely on the performance of students rather than worry about unexpected funding reductions mid-year. And finally, in Kurdistan, the private operator does not face perhaps the largest barrier to entry – access to and availability of facilities. The government works in true partnership with the private provider by providing the necessary facilities necessary to deliver the sought-after results. If we are to take a serious look at raising education standards of the masses, governments around the world need to learn from the Kurdistan model of private sector engagement in public education. Only in the spirit of true partnership will we be able to leverage the experiences, resources, and motivation of the private sector to raise education standards and tackle the most pressing issue of our time. To learn more about SABIS®’s experience in Kurdistan as well as the organization’s long history and approach to education, read the latest book by renowned U.K. author and education policy expert, James Tooley. From Village School to Global Brand: Changing the World through Education is available online from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Image: Author Carl Bistany Carl Bistany is a board member of SABIS® Holdings and the president of two education management companies, SABIS® Educational Services s.a.l. and SABIS® Educational Systems, Inc. These two companies manage schools within the SABIS® School Network, which currently serves Pre-K, K-12 schools, and a university located in fifteen countries on four continents. Since joining SABIS® in 1992, Mr. Bistany has led the fourth generation family-owned business and transitioned it into a globally-recognized, professionally-managed enterprise at the forefront of education management. In addition to his active involvement as president of SABIS®, he has been instrumental in pursuing the expansion of the SABIS® School Network in the private sector in various countries as well as into the Public-Private-Partnership arena in the U.A.E, U.S., U.K., and Kurdistan. Mr. Bistany holds two Masters’ degrees, one in Mathematics and the other in Computer Science from Syracuse University, NY. He is also a Harvard alumnus, having completed the Harvard Business School Executive Education Owner/President Manager program. He serves as a board member of several organizations including the Advisory Board of the Institute of Family and Entrepreneurial Business at the Lebanese American University and the Chief Executives Organization. He was the founding Chairman of the Lebanese Chapter of the Young President Organization (YPO) as well as the World Presidents’ Organization (WPO). He has also served as a senior member of the Executive Board of the Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is a member of the World Bank Advisory Group on Engaging the Private Sector and is a sought-after speaker at global education conferences and events.
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