Exploring Public-Private Partnership in Preschool Education Provision as a Contributor to Socio-Economic Development

Equitable and quality education provision is widely recognized as an integral part of socio-economic development. Current theories propose different approaches for explaining the impact of education, and of early-childhood education in particular, on economic development. Despite opposition to the idea of assigning returns (especially monetary returns) to distinct periods in a child’s development, a substantial body of literature supports the correlation between educational interventions and individual and national productivity. For example, Heckman (2006) uses economic model analysis to link investments on different age groups to skill formation later in life. He demonstrates the relationship between education and economic success at later stages of the life cycle, and shows that the return to investment at earlier stages of development, particularly during preschool years, has the highest rate of return. Over the last decade, this return on investment- based analysis of educational investment has become increasingly influential with policymakers throughout the world. Drawing from a small-scale pilot project launched and implemented by the Center for Innovations in Education (CIE) in the Shamkir region of Azerbaijan, this paper analyzes the potential of public-private partnerships (PPP) in preschool education and social support provision as a model contributing to accessibility and affordability of these services, in addition to rejuvenating employability of a largely unemployed population of preschool professionals. The project focuses on supporting families with young children through community-based preschool services and improving the quality of primary education. Arguments presented in this paper are based on a review of existing scholarship on the PPP model, previous policy analysis on expanding national access to preschool education through PPP (and other service provision models) done by CIE, and a review of the ongoing project. The project exemplifies a case of PPP through the cooperation of a local municipal authority, business sector corporate social responsibility department, and a civil society organization. This alternative model is of particular importance, when taking into account that the expansion of preschool education is one of the areas included in Azerbaijan’s national development strategies. This paper examines the effectiveness of social practices developed through cross-sectoral collaboration and explores how such cooperation may lead to socio-economic development of society as a whole.From the perspective of different stakeholders involved, this model suggests multi-layered desired outcomes. For private sector and corporate stakeholders, the PPP model for preschool services may present a type of arrangement that helps to achieve more sustainable social benefit in realization of their CSR. In addition, the small scale of this model better enables educational services to meet the diverse needs of communities and beneficiaries. In the example of the CIE project, the community-based PPP model suggests several components that may help to increase return on national education investment. Hiring and training of qualified but unemployed professionals develops both unemployed former educators and community children. Considering the highly centralized nature of pre-school education services and institutions in urban areas, an approach that utilizes untapped local resources facilitates the expansion of preschool services to rural areas and in general, outside the capital.