The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education and the Tatweer Building Company recently organised a conference in Riyadh focusing on greater private sector engagement in education reform in the Kingdom.

As a strategic partner for the “Investment & Finance in Educational Buildings” Conference, professional services firm Deloitte shared its wide-ranging regional and global experience on public-private sector initiatives and education reform during the two-day conference.

Deloitte facilitated an interactive workshop attended by senior government and education leaders to explore the role of the private sector in developing Saudi education while providing an overview of regional and international experience and insights.

“Greater participation of the private sector in education is a valuable opportunity to relieve the government of a significant portion of its funding burden while bringing in expertise that can improve efficiency, standards, and much more,” said Gavin Quantock, director, Financial Advisory, Deloitte UK, who spoke at the event.

“This expertise can be applied across the education spectrum in areas as diverse as public policy engagement, infrastructure and facility management, administration, and education development and delivery.”

“The Deloitte workshop looked at the potential scope of the private sector within the education value chain in Saudi Arabia and how it can further support the progress of the NTP and Vision 2030, as well as the practical issues in managing private sector engagement and how engagement might be managed effectively and efficiently,” said Khaled M Al-Sagga, partner, Consulting, Deloitte, Saudi Arabia.

“Based on Deloitte’s global experience, there is no one-size-fit-all solution model that can be followed in KSA for the participation of the private sector in education. Hence, we need to develop such models with local content and the Saudi culture into consideration.”

“There is a wide range of types of private sector engagement in education taking place in the region and around the world. In the workshop we looked at how some of these might apply to the Kingdom, and the advantages and disadvantage of each,” said David Brazier, director, Financial Advisory, Deloitte in the Middle East.

“Successful public-private partnership (PPP) models bring wide-ranging benefits including the ability to incorporate quality criteria into contracts and effectively measure performance.” He added: “The coming months and years offer sizeable opportunities for the private and public sectors to engage in joint initiatives that would transform the education sector and better prepare the Kingdom’s youth for the future.” – TradeArabia News Service