Minister Wrong on Public Private Partnership (PPP) Schools

national | education | news report Tuesday December 16, 2008 12:57 by People Before Profit Alliance - Dublin South East pbp_dse at yahoo dot ie 086 152 3542

Rory Hearne, who recently completed a PhD on PPPs in Trinity College Dublin and who is a candidate for the People Before Profit Alliance in the upcoming local elections in Dublin South East, has criticised the decision to develop another bundle of schools through the PPP mechanism.

Rory Hearne, a PPP expert said: “Minister Batt O Keefe claims today that one of the main advantages PPP schools have is that the principal is not involved on a daily basis in maintenance and caretaking issues as these become the responsibility of the PPP operator for the period of the contract. However, the research that I undertook over three years into PPP schools in Ireland and the UK found that in fact the workload of principals did not automatically lessen. In some of the Irish PPP schools the workload of principals INCREASED due to the private operator trying to cut costs and the complex nature of contract monitoring.”

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