Memoire Online - Primary education and entrepreneurship in east Africa: a case study of private schools for the poor in Kibera(Kenya)

Holding this precious piece of work at hand at this particular moment still gives the deep impression that I am not yet awake from the dream in which I have been plunged into for the past two years. Indeed reaching the completion point of my master degree has not been easy at all and I humbly feel that I have definitely made a great step ahead in the accomplishment of my goals. All the way from Cameroon my home country to the UK via Belgium, the path has been dotted with so many obstacles. These unbearable moments in my life could have led to a total surrender of the project, but yet I was still able to stand and «fight for my future» as Dr Dixon would say.

It is not only my responsibility but my utmost pleasure to extend my first feeling of heartfelt and warm gratitude to all the scholars and people who have in one way or the other one contributed to make this dream come true. My tremendous gratitude is extended to Dr Pauline Dixon who has been my first support as well as an unquantifiable resource from day one at Newcastle till date. As my personal advisor, supervisor and pathway leader of the International development and education master's programme, Dr Dixon has nurtured me indefatigably with perseverance, hardworking, patience and particularly hopes for a better future ahead. Dearest Pauline, may you find in the significance of these words the true and sincere recognition of my gratitude. You have helped me to realise this dream and i shall always be indebted to you.

My gratitude and recognition go to the Master of Education staff of Newcastle University for their enormous support in accompanying all the students throughout the academic year. I hereby acknowledge and salute the job carried on by the program director, the program secretary, all the lecturers and staff of the EG WEST CENTRE. All my friends and colleagues from the programme have equally played a great role in my social wellbeing at Newcastle in such a way that omitting to mention their contribution will definitely look pretty unfair. From various origins at the very beginning, we all emerged gradually and finally became one single group. Wherever they may be, I should like thank each and every one of them. On a particular note, I would like to single out Mr George Mikwa of the Kenyan Independent Schools Association (KISA) for the unstinting and unconditional assistance in the completion of this work. Through him and thanks to Dr Dixon, we were able to carry out this research in Kibera. He acted as our main resource person in Kenya and was very helpful in collecting our data on the field and further channelling these at the EG WEST Centre, Newcastle University.

Furthermore, I will like to extend my sincere and warm gratitude to Professor Augustin, Bame Nsamenang, of the university of Yaoundé and Director of The Human Development resource Centre (HDRC) Bamenda, Cameroon. He initiated and guided my ways in the area of research right from my early beginnings at the Teacher's training college in Bambili, Cameroon and has always encouraged me to pursue my academic dreams with conviction and enthusiasm, in spite of the difficulties that could hamper my success. Many thanks Prof.

Finally, I extend my sincere thanks to Dr Nguendjio of the Teacher's Training college in Cameroon, friends, family who have always trusted and encouraged me. Without the tremendous support of all the people mentioned above as well as so many others, this dissertation could not been as more meaningful as it is to me now.

ABSTRACT

The dissertation describes and analyses the study of primary education and entrepreneurship in Kibera, one of the largest slums in East Africa. The research is carried out to establish the contribution of the private educational sector in the global campaign of Education for All (EFA) in Kenya. With the euphoria created by era of free primary education which has taken place in most African countries in the early 2000's and the negative impressions that have been noted as a result of this embracement , this study set out to critically appraise the role played by private schools owners in the provision of «quality education». The research which is a case study uses information from 20 school owners, 25 pupils and 25 teachers from selected schools in the slum of Kibera to answer the research question and sub questions.

The dissertation commences with a general introduction in which the scene is set up through background information and specific details concerning the focus and the aim of the study. It equally discusses in a succinct way the motives and reasons behind the exploration of private schools in Africa. The review of literature provides a general picture of recent and ongoing debates on private schools for the poor especially in Africa; this is followed by related discussions on entrepreneurship and the development of the continent. The overall method used for the study is then addressed in the third chapter and this opens an avenue for the examination and analysis of the data collected through the research instruments. At this point every question is critically explored and the results being commented accordingly. All the respondents' answers in addition to relevant documentation are given serious concern in the quest of a response to the main question of the research and to determine the general satisfaction expressed for the investments in education. The summary and suggestion section concludes the whole study.

The findings suggest that even in the context of free primary education, many parents and pupils still prefer the private schools in spite of the fact that these schools charge fees. Some of the pupils taking part in the research who have been in the past enrolled in government schools deplore the overcrowded classrooms, teachers' absence and lack of attention which is rampant in government schools. The private schools owners, who in the majority are familiar with the Kenyan educational system, mentioned some of the above points as the motivations for setting up their own schools. Two recurrent points were «inadequate schools» in the slum and the desire to focus on HIV/AIDS orphans and socially excluded children. Both teachers and pupils actually expressed their overall satisfaction with the investments except for issues like infrastructures, facilities and salaries for the case of teachers. It was found that the information about the regulations governing the opening of private schools in Kenya is flawed given that few entrepreneurs barely knew what they were. The action of the Kenya Independent Schools Association (KISA) is considered extremely important for the development of the sector and suggestions are given at the end in favour a potential support for the association. The private schools in Kibera and certainly elsewhere in Africa are considered a crucial partner in the achievement of Universal Primary Education given their potential. It therefore would seem quite bizarre not to value the contribution of the educational entrepreneurs in the overall process of education and above all the development of Africa.

1.1Presentation of the topic

The increasing queries and support for primary education in Africa in the perspective of achieving Universal Primary Education (UPE) by the year 2015, has been for some time at the centre of many concerns both at national and international levels. In spite of commendable strategies and reforms adopted by governments, scholars, educational specialists, international agencies and donors from conferences held in Jomtien (1990) and in Dakar (2000), general reports about primary education in Africa are still alarming. The general consensus typically agrees that the demand for education at all levels especially in Africa and Asia has greatly outpaced supply. (Karmokolias et al 1997:4)

This dissertation's main focus is to study primary education in east Africa and to establish related development of educational entrepreneurship in Kenya and their contributions to one of the most important Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which is making basic education accessible to all through Universal Primary Education campaigns. In the light of information gathered through research instruments, the study discusses variables of the trend which is currently being observed in developing countries: That of the mushrooming of private schools catering for the poor and the socially excluded especially in slums and remote areas of Africa Tooley et al 2007, Watkins 2000). Moreover it sets to find out the entrepreneurs' motivations for setting private schools in slums, the impact of their investment on the development process of their communities as well as it critically analyses teachers and pupils satisfaction on private schools in Kibera, one of the largest slums in East Africa. A review of literature on private education and entrepreneurship in Africa has been covered at this effect so as to enable a good understanding of the topic and relevant scientific approaches to the theme.

The study gives an interesting picture of private schools in Kibera and the efforts undertaken by school entrepreneurs to render the quality of these schools better. The pupils and parent's heart of this slum seem to be beating for private schools in spite of the Free Primary Education initiated in Kenya in the year 2003. However, some shortcomings have equally been noted especially at the infrastructural and financial level. Nonetheless, the private schools in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa are playing a key role in forging ahead basic education for all especially for the poorest.(Tooley et al 2008)

This research has benefited from a logistic support of the EG WEST centre, Newcastle University and strong collaboration from its board members as well as we have been able to get in direct touch with private school entrepreneurs in Kenya thanks to George Mikwa, the president of the Kenya Independent Schools Association (KISA).

1.2 Focus and aim of the Study

In the perspective of understanding and addressing issues related to primary education and Entrepreneurship in East Africa, the following main research question constituted the central starting point:

`How and why do private school entrepreneurs contribute to education for all in Kenya?'

Further, the main question was segmented into four sub areas. This structure will provide analysis of the data to answer the overall thesis question through the following sub questions:

· What are the entrepreneurs' major motivations for investment in the field of education?

· Have these schools suffered from the government's introduction of 'Free Primary Education (2003)' in terms of enrolment?

· What is the satisfaction level from their investment as perceived by pupils and teachers?

· What factors could be identified as the major gaps in this type of provision?

To cover all these questions, specific areas of investigations were chosen and appropriately explored with close respect to many critics' point of view to this type of provision (Watkins 2000, Lewin 2007, Rose 2006). These specific areas ranged from entrepreneurs motivations for setting up private schools in Kibera, actions taken to improve the quality of their provision including the facilities offered in the teaching process in the selected schools, to the study of the prevailing investment climate of Kenya. Hence, a great importance was given to various opinions expressed concerning the satisfaction level of direct beneficiaries of this investment, which are pupils and teachers.

The identification of the major gaps in the private schools provision equally formed part of the research and an analysis of pupils' tests scores was equally carried in order to establish the correlation between the overall satisfaction expressed and the achievements in these schools.

1.3 Why the Private educational Sector?

This thesis focuses on the private sector because it is felt that it's contribution to the advancement of education on the African continent in enormous and have not been given appropriate consideration from educational stakeholders, governments and donors. Many scientific works have been done on private educational provision in the developing world and some are still under research. All the reports note that there is a mushrooming of private schools catering for low income families across Africa. The review of the literature, making the second chapter of this thesis points out some of these arguments. Based on these, it may appear that private schools in Africa are much more preferred by the target audience to the detriment of government schools. Several reasons given to consolidate this trend are likely related to governments' inability to provide quality education in the developing countries. Teachers' absence, lack of motivation, distance schools, overcrowded classrooms, underground fees; these are some of the reasons behind the massive return observed in private schools of Africa and across other developing countries.

On its own, the private sector seems to be doing well. Existing literature depicts a mitigating picture on this form of provision. On one hand ,a set those advocating the merits of private schools for the poor championed by Tooley and Dixon and on the other hand, another set of scholars condemning to the lists extend the efforts done by private schools in the Universal primary Education campaign. This set of scholars is headed by Lewin, Pauline Rose and Watkins.

It then appears very challenging and exciting to carefully analyse the positions of all these scholars in the light of effective research so as to be able to come out with precise information on the role played by the private sector in fostering education for All (EFA) especially in Africa where many western efforts towards achieving development have up till date failed.

1.4 Why Kenya (Kibera)?

The approach given to the study has chosen the slum of Kibera in Kenya for many reasons. First of all Kenya seem to be in the spot light since it has been chosen as model of development in terms of educational provision in Africa by many world leaders, influential politician and pop stars. The declaration of the former US president, Bill Clinton actually contributed a lot to fuel curiosity on the typical case of this country. In an interview given to an American Television, the latter said he said the person he most wanted to meet was president Kibaki of Kenya «because he abolished school fees» which «would affects more lives than any president had done or would ever do...»^1(*). The declaration preceded actions from other institutions. In fact, some financial donation from the World Bank and the British government of worth $55m and £20m respectively were publicly announced, in support to the Free Primary Education Campaign.

Secondly, the Free Primary Education campaign was launched in Kenya in the year 2003 with the aim of covering the educational needs of the population. This was to be a specificity of the new elected administration headed by president Kibaki and had as focus all the government schools. Based on past research in this country and current ones under research at the EG West centre by James Stanfield and others, we were curious to find out if the political and media propaganda surrounding the project had had the merit to be so much highlighted. We equally wanted to know if the astronomical budget allocated at this effect couple with international aid had boosted the educational sector of Kenya.

Finally, Kibera from developmental perspectives is the biggest slum in East Africa with a population estimated between 220,000 to 250,000 inhabitants living together in a perimeter of

2.3 And 2.5 sq Kilometres. It was felt that a study in such area would depict a true picture of how poor people educational priorities and which choice they make in fulfilling these priorities.

1.5 Why look at Entrepreneurship?

Many economists have highlighted the role that entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship could play in responses to poverty and social instability on the continent. They argue in a great majority that private investment is the only way out of Africa's miasma and underdevelopment and that the sector's economic potential and social contribution needs to be re evaluated and given strong regulatory support from African governments. It is suggested that in the perspective of boosting the continent's development, investment should be done in the field of agriculture, manufacturing, education, health care, telecommunication, and infrastructure (Ayittey 2007).

However the prevailing investment environment in Africa seems not to be encouraging enough and has been for ages now at the centre of many observations (Ayittey 2007, Elkan 1988, Boettke 2007).

Back on the field of education, the existing literature that investment is not a new phenomenon in Africa. Private schools did exist in Africa long time ago and there has been a growing desire for more investment in the field. This desire, as observed in the research has many motivations. The case study of private schools in Kibera; where there is an incredible growing number of populations, is just a picture of that desire for investment all over the continent. However, critics as well governing bodies such as UNESCO and OXFAM deplore that private schools entrepreneurs are geared towards profit making and as such cannot claim to be offering quality service to the population. The study of entrepreneurship in this case equally set out to determine if this assertion in worthy of credibility.

1.6 Why mixed methods?

The case study approach in conducting the research in Kenya required specific techniques of data collection. We thought that the study would benefit from a mixed method in order to gather as much information as possible from several angles, but equally to compare the results of the investigations through the answers obtained with different techniques. Hence, questionnaires, interviews, documentation were appropriately used at this effect. Many scholars such as Creswell (2003) have valued this scientific approach especially in social sciences as it enables the researcher to perform a triangulation with the data collected.

The integration of quantitative and qualitative methods for this study therefore provides us with so many advantages. It enables us to understand clearly the motivations behind entrepreneurs' investments in private schools in Kibera which is a captivating point in appraising the mushrooming of private schools in Africa. Further it gives a picture of what the investment climate in most African countries actually look like. Finally with these mixed methods, we are able to evaluate the satisfaction level of the beneficiary people involved in the educational business.

Above all, this multi- strategy approach provides us with general information concerning the contribution of private schools entrepreneurs in educational provision in Africa. Using this approach, the overall procedure warrants and conveys to us a sense of rigour of the research itself and this is quite useful in clarifying the nature of our intentions or accomplishments. (Bryman 2006:98)

1.7 The dissertation

The answers to the research questioned mentioned above have provided us with an avenue for understanding the strong motivation behind investment in primary schools in East Africa and the related prevailing investment climate. These answers have to an extent covered the focus and aim of this study which set out to assess the contribution of private schools entrepreneurs in educational provision on the continent. Several points of views of advocators and non advocators of the private school system were taken into account in the overall process of analysing the information obtained through data collection. Hence the research plan was divided into five major chapters and their content though structurally independent was interrelated and all linked to the main research question.

The first chapter aimed at bringing the general information to our topic, thus setting the scene for a thorough understanding of the thematic approach to the research. It did give a rationale for the study as well as it explained the reasons for focussing on the private sector and entrepreneurship in Kenya (Kibera).

Chapter two reviews past and ongoing research on private schools in Africa with foci on private schools in poor area. The priority here is given to current trends on the growth of private schools in Africa and the impact on the educational process in the global campaign against illiteracy. Arguments for and against this form of provision are reviewed and specific points taken into account in the analysis. Further the part equally discusses entrepreneurship in an African context with suggested measures advocated for an effective developmental move on the continent.

In chapter three, the methodology of the research is discussed and explanations are given to justify the use of specific techniques. A general overview of the case study is revisited and attempts of figuring out the corresponding paths to explore the research question and sub questions through quantitative and qualitative methods are equally observed. This chapter states the procedures adopted in gathering the data in Kenya and briefly enumerates other sources of information related to the topic and establish basis for analysing these data.

Chapter four on its own gives a presentation and analysis of the main findings obtained through our research instruments. It addresses the question `How and why do private school entrepreneurs contribute to education for all in Kenya?' Particular attention is paid to all the elements of response given by the respondents and these are critically analysed in such a way that each sub question is provided with an accurate answer. The related documentation and pupils' test scores are equally well exploited and their substance combined with information from other sources. All these are summarized at the end of the chapter.

Finally, chapter five is concerned with a general conclusion, suggestions and recommendations for further research. This chapter in a nutshell relates our study findings to the literature review and provides more explanations on the research outcomes. In the light of the results, some suggestions are mentioned and recommendations channelled for future investigations in the field. This chapter is somehow the «denouement» of the research.

Chapter Two - Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

This chapter seeks to highlight the different theories, past and ongoing research works on the entrepreneurship and educational development that formed the basis of this study and to discuss related literature on the variables of this study.

For this purpose, a number of books, articles, journals, websites and conference reports have been scrutinized in order to provide the study with consistent and reliable motives for its investigations. A great importance was given to what many scholars have written or said concerning education and development in Africa, the Kenyan case included.

This chapter has a focus of three major aspects. The first part deals with variables on private education in Africa paying attention to the tremendous development which is being noted in this field over the continent. The second part will be dealing with questions related to Free Primary Education (FPE) and private schools for the poor in Africa, followed by a short look at entrepreneurship in Africa as well as the impact it has on the development of the continent. Finally the third part shall look at the aspects surrounding the actions undertaken by private school organisations such as the Kenyan Independent Schools Association (KISA), a Nairobi based group well known for their efforts in improving the quality of their schools in Kenya.

The structure outlined for this chapter was deemed well elaborated and informative enough for a better understanding of our research topic and the motivation behind the whole study. This will certainly bring more light to appraise from an African perspective, the role of private school for the poor in meeting the United Nations Millennium Goals (MDGs) of universal primary education by 2015. (Tooley and Dixon, 2003)

2.2 Private education in Africa

The African continent just as others forming the globe has noted some considerable evolution in the field of education in almost all its countries. From antiquity to recent times, education was provided and dominated by private organisations or individuals. (Karmokolias, Y &Maas, 1997)

Diversely organised, the private sector had played over ages forefront positions in the provision of education be it formal or informal to the African people ranging from family homes to well established learning settings, this from indigenous systems to present time. Tracing back the origins of private schools development in some Eastern African countries, existing literature reveals the impact role played by the pre-colonial indigenous systems, the pioneering works of the missionaries and post colonial periods. (Ssekamwa, J& Lugumba, S, 2002)

Far from the idea of developing a thorough review of the history of education in Africa, this section will focus on recent and ongoing studies conducted by a wide range of researchers and scholars related to private schools for the poor in Africa.

2.2.1 Free Primary Education and Private school for the poor in Sub Saharan Africa

Primary education in developing countries have for some time now been at the centre of many agenda in both national and international meetings in the world. It is believed that the less a population is literate, the less chances they would have to achieve acceptable development. Under the powerful supports of international institutions such as the World Bank, UNESCO, the IMF, bilateral and multilateral cooperation's, many African states agreed in the early 2000's to render access to primary schooling free of charge. However, the exploratory assessment report of Free Primary education in countries such as Kenya identified so many challenges faced by the government in the preparation and dissemination of this free education. Among these challenges were recurrent issues ranging from effective communication strategies from the Ministry of education poor infrastructures, inadequate comprehensive educational policies, intensified campaigns against HIV/Aids, financial resources, teachers training and governments concerns with the promotion of partnership to ensure sustainable implementation of FPE etc...(UNESCO 2005: 8-11)

Looking closely into one of the most important of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it states that «everyone has a right to education». Further, in its third paragraph, the above mentioned declaration concludes that: «parents have the prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children» (World education report 2000:16). This particular aspect of the declaration coupled with the «illusions» engendered by the FPE initiatives in many African countries are likely to be the main motivation for pupils massive returns to private schools.

The idea behind private school for the poor in Africa has been for some time now highly explored and developed in educational literature of our days. This recurring notion with which so many scholars and researchers are now familiar takes its source from a series of studies undertaken and conducted by some British scholars among which the well known pair Tooley and Dixon. The results of their longitudinal study carried between April 2003 and June 2005 across India and Africa; reveals a burgeoning activity of private schools catering for the poor and the poorest especially in the slums and shanty towns in Makoko, Lagos' state in Nigeria and Ga in Ghana just to name a few across the continent.

In most cases where they carried out their studies, these scholars found that in the greatest majority, poor people in the slums and remote areas in Africa would prefer sending their children in private schools. In the quest of finding an answer to the trend, several important reasons arose from parents responses for their choice.

In Lagos state in Nigeria for instance, they found that close to 70% of schools(355 in number out of total of 540) surrounding the locality were private and thus having the poor as target population for their provision. Of these private schools in Lagos state, 233 schools thus 43.1% were unregistered (Tooley et al 2005:130). This same trend is complemented by other scholars who have carried out some studies in the same area and they seemed to agree on one point. In the Lagos state of Nigeria, unapproved schools usually termed as private do offer schooling opportunities to a good number of children especially in urban and peri-urban areas. (Adelabu and Rose 2004:2; in Uwakwe et al, 2008:135)

Investigations of several studies in Sub-Saharan African countries pinpoint the inadequacy of the public sector (government) to impart quality education to the overall population (Rose 2002:4-6). In a nutshell, private schools in Nigeria as well as in many other countries, in the view many observers play a key role in the provision of education in spite of the fact that they charge fees and tuitions to the pupils. Even the wage of Free Primary Education (FPE) which originally was set to provide free and accessible education especially to the poor in most African states seems not to have had any major impact on its' development.

In the district of Ga in Ghana where a similar survey on private school for the poor was carried in the year 2004, still by Tooley and his team, the number of private schools catering for low income people was out passing the number of public schools presumably destined to cover the educational provision in the entire district. Out of the total number of 161,244 reported attending school in the district for the academic year 2003-2004, only a portion of 35.6% were attending government schools while a good number making up to 64.4% of children were attending private schools(both registered and unregistered) (Tooley et al 2007:396). These figures are extremely significant in the perspective of understanding the extent to which the phenomenon is widely taking leading positions in the field of education. It would appear that many parents seem to have found in this form of provision, the best option in the academic achievement of their offspring. Here again the reasons advanced correlate with most cases in other countries: The government school system is likely failing in spite of commendable efforts to reclaim its leadership over such an important sector in the developmental process of each country. As noted by Tooley et al 2007:409, the private sector is certainly a significant provider of education in the district of Ga in Ghana.

Cameroon on its own has not been left out of the move. This country located at the heart of the continent contains a portion of population of close to 40% living in abject poverty according to official estimates from the National statistical office (Backiny-Yetna and Wodon 2009:168). Although the latter in their study assume that «the market share of public government schools is 86 percent in rural areas and 57 percent in urban areas» their assertion should however and undoubtedly be subject to field verification with same surveys method used by Tooley and Dixon. Private schools do exist in the country and mostly functioning clandestinely and are very often subject to treats from the ministry in charge urging explicitly the eradication of «clandestine» private schools. (Yufeh 2007).Nonetheless, one major trend in this country is the remarkable presence of faith-based providers in primary (Basic) education sector. However, the perception of the existence of private schools catering for the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa is often diversely appreciated. Not all scholars seem to look at this burgeoning sector from the same perspective. The following paragraph enlightens the critics of the private school for the poor in Africa.

2.2.2 Critics of private school for the poor

The idea of private schools offering services of better quality as compared to that of government schools in Africa has not always been meet with positive remarks. There have been an emerging range of critics who actually dispute the role played by the private sector in the process of fighting illiteracy and imparting Education for All (EFA) all over the continent. Although from a general point of view some scholar acknowledge the «appalling standard of provision in public educational systems», they are however still convinced of the inferior quality of provision delivered in private schools for the poor. (Watkins 2000: 230-231). To some extent it is argued that even though the mushrooming of private schools in Africa, especially with the case of unapproved primary schools in Nigeria stand as an ultimate response to the government failure in providing appropriate quality primary education, (Adelabu & Rose 2004:63-64) their expansion should not however been interpreted as the best option considering the «low quality» of this provision. (Adelabu & Rose 2004:48)

Among these critics of private schools for the poor in Africa is one of the most influential by name Keith Lewin, a British professor of Education at the Sussex University. The latter strongly argues that:

«Primary schooling is a universal right and only states can make a reality of the delivery rights to populations, especially those marginalised by poverty» (Lewin 2007:2).

Following his point of view, Lewin assumes that private providers' actions in the fight against illiteracy in Sub Saharan Africa are not welcome in the sense that they cannot undertake a responsibility which is not theirs. The Education for All (EFA) commitments is essentially the responsibility of states which stand as providers of last resorts, he claims. (Lewin 2007:2-3)

His arguments go along with what Tooley has termed the «accepted wisdom» which sees in the private provision a «non lieu» and rather open more avenues and more privilege for the domination of states provision supported in this by educational stakeholders, foreign politicians, Pop stars campaigns and International agencies. In this perspective the poor and left away children in slums of Africa would have to wait for actions to be taken in their favour, even if this means waiting for ever. However, this is turned down for the simple reason that:

«The accepted wisdom, however, is entirely wrong. It ignores the remarkable reality that the poor in Africa have not have not been waiting helplessly for the munificence of pop stars and Western politicians to ensure that their children get a decent education» (Tooley 2006: 9).

In a nutshell, many poor parents of sub Saharan African living under $2 dollars a day seems to find in private provision, the way forward for their offspring' future. Somehow betrayed by the government school system, their children have found refuge in private schools operated by entrepreneurs. The following part discusses entrepreneurship and development in Africa.

2.3 Entrepreneurship and development in Africa

Of equal importance as well as the first part of our work in the whole process of understanding our research, is the idea of entrepreneurship in an African context. Many attempts have been given to define Entrepreneurship. However it should be seen in the present context as the investment will of local businessmen to bring about a difference in the type of provision that the populations are already used to. Playing strategic roles in their respective fields, they are said to be at the origin of economic boom in countries like India and China. Their presence on the continent has always been felt as the origin of their actions is evolving alongside the various countries histories. Generally, their impact is usually felt in fields where the government cannot provide effective service to the entire needy population. As such they have become a crucial partner in the development process of a nation. In the perspective of specifying their role, Boettke (2007) states that:

«Where governments cannot address the issues effectively through the public sector, individuals are effectively operating in the private sector to define property rights, to innovate with technology, and to pursue trading opportunities that potentially lift people out of poverty» (Boettke 2007:3)

According to many economists point of view, Entrepreneurship should be reconsidered strongly if African leaders want their respective states to line up with the worldwide development machinery. George Ayitteh, one of the continent high esteemed development economists for instance argues that fixing Africa's state equally reposes on private investment. He makes it clear for all that:

«Private investment is the way out of Africa's economic miasma and grinding poverty. Africa needs investment in agriculture, manufacturing, education, health care, telecommunications, and infrastructure» (Ayittey 2007:158).

Although many would agree that «Entrepreneurship is a catalyst for economic growth and progress» (Joshua and Russell 2008:247) it would be worth noting that one of the essential determinant for this investment which is economic freedom rarely figures on the African investment agenda. Back to the field of education, it is worth noting the overwhelming presence of entrepreneurs who out of their personal financial resources set up and operate schools especially where the demands for education is extremely high. Rather than waiting for international aid which paradoxically has shown its limits in the development process of Africa (Easterly 2006), this set of investors generally closed enough to their communities participate in their own way to the achievement of one of the MDG's goal: Universal Primary Education. However their investments and actions are sometimes met with obstacles from the government in which they act. These obstacles range from restrictions, severe regulations, non access to big scale loans, licensing procedure etc...All these factors influence in a long run the possibilities of expanding the investments. In fact:

«Entrepreneurship operates in an environment greatly influenced by government policy. In countries where governments are dominant in every sphere of activity, whether through parastatal enterprises, through licensing controls, or through obliging farmers to sell at prices set by statutory marketing boards, the possibilities for gaining entrepreneurial experience are correspondingly reduced» (Elkan 1988:177)

Such prevailing environment which ironically is very common in almost all African states, do favour effective investment and thus contribute to shatter to dream of the majority of African entrepreneurs as they fill concerned with the development at all levels of their countries and continent.

Nonetheless, our case study of Kibera in Kenya have given us the opportunity to ponder a little bit on one association grouping educational entrepreneurs in that part of the continent. The following part briefly discusses their actions for the development of education in Kenya.

2.4 The Kenyan Independent School Association (KISA) and the Development of Private School for the Poor

One important fact that captured our attention within the focus of the study was the existence of an association bringing together all private schools entrepreneurs. The interest in understanding this association went «crescendo» as we realised that its members were all geared towards the same objective, which is ensuring a constant quality of private schools provision in their settings. Set in 1999, the association had ( we believe they still do) as priority to address the challenges faced by educational entrepreneurs with the mission to

«empower communities to engage the Government of Kenya and other stakeholders to pursue policies and actions that promote the access of all children in informal settlements to a holistic quality education» (Musani 2008:4)

Faced with all the possible challenges in their respective communities, the private school owners in Kenya (generally individuals with previous educational backgrounds) through their association are said to have been of tremendous support to the poorest and HIV/AIDS orphans. Having as premium target the poorest population, their schools are certainly not exempted from recurrent realities of the educational problems in the third world ranging from the poor infrastructures, teachers turnover to limited resources just to name a few. However existing literature does point out clearly the positive role that this association has been playing for the development of education in Kenya. In fact:

«Over the past ten years, KISA has played an active role in the independent schools sector promoting education and rights of poor children»(Musani 2008:2)

It is assumed that if given effective means of functioning, the services offered to its teachers and members could give more strength and support to the improvement of the quality of the quality of education in private schools. Nonetheless even with fewer funds their actions are already extremely remarkable enough and thus constitute a valuable tool for better days ahead of private schools in Kenya. An in-depth study of the KISA actions on the field points out:

«...the independent schools will continue to play a large role in the education sector in Kenya. By providing low-cost affordable quality education, low-income families, particularly in the urban slum areas, will rely on the independent schools for continued quality education of their children.» (Musani 2008:2)

Such actions undertaken by this group of educational entrepreneurs in Africa simply correlated with what Tooley (2006) early mentioned, that is: «The poor have not been waiting helplessly...» Indeed they have been very active especially concerning the education of their children. Their actions equally go along with what Barack Obama in his speech in Accra last July 11^th 2009 urged Africans to do in order to foster development on the continent.

2.5 Summary

This chapter has presented a literature review on Primary education and entrepreneurship in Africa. Having focused mainly on private education in that part of the world as well as Free Primary education initiative, related existing literature published by authors and researchers on the topics were scrutinized. This has enabled us to establish the theoretical underpinnings of the research. Firstly, we sought to explain different variables surrounding education in Africa with particular foci on private school for the poor on the continent. An appraisal of their dominance over government schools even despite the Free Primary Education initiative was elaborated and critics' points of view of this form of provision were equally visited. As another major focus of our study was about entrepreneurship in Africa, general aspects of the topics were studied with an emphasis laid on concerns about its realities. The sections have been structured in such a way that a thorough understanding of the research analysis will be possible.

Finally, the last section was concerned with the look at a set of educational entrepreneurs in Kenya and their contributions towards to betterment of private school provision in Kenya. This section has produced some facts about the efficacy of such gathering. With the KISA, it is obvious that the private schools in Kenya will stand as major provider of quality education in urban slums especially for the poorest, HIV/AIDS orphans and low-income families.

Chapter Three - Methodology

3.1 The research methods of the study

3.1.1 Theoretical framework

The methodology chapter reports on the various ways the research has been carried out and presented. In order to allow an in-depth analysis of the research questions, a case study was found most appropriate. The advantage of this specific approach remains the fact that it offers the researcher the opportunity to probe deeply and analyse interactions between the factors that explain present status or that influence change or growth and it therefore provides a ground for one aspect of a problem to be studied in some depth (Best, J &Kahn 2003:249, Bell 2005:10).

The case study is defined as a research strategy which focuses on the understanding the dynamics present within single settings and can employ embedded design or better still multiple level of analysis within a single study (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 1984).

A number of 20 private school owners (entrepreneurs), 25 teachers and 25 pupils of 5 selected schools were thus chosen to focus the study on. Researching primary education and entrepreneurship in East Africa henceforth required specific method that would provide a better understanding of the complexities surrounding entrepreneurship. From these perspectives, it then sounded very obvious and relevant to find in the case study approach the most adequate way of conducting our research considering the socio-economic environment in which it was done.

However, this structural approach has always met severe critics from scholars «misunderstandings» of its operational ability to offer concrete results (Tellis 1997, Yin. Some of the most common points for these misunderstandings are generally related to the fact that, with this approach:

Ø One cannot generalise from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development.

Ø The case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypothesis testing and theory building.

Ø It is often difficult to summarise specific case studies (Flyvbjerg, 2006:219)

Nonetheless, in a response to a major point of these concerns, namely that of the generalization in case studies, (Denscombe 1998, cited in Bell, 2005:11) rightly points out that:

«The extent to which findings from case study can be generalized to other examples in the class depends on how far the case study example is similar to others of its type».

Closely related to this last aspect, our conviction still remained that, the field of education, being very broad and extended in the overall social sciences, needed some case studies in order to critically analyse certain phenomenon. The motivation gearing to the massive presence of private school entrepreneurs and the mushrooming of private schools catering for the poor in a slum such as Kibera could only be well understood through a case study approach.

3.1.2 Research method used and description of data collection

Research in social sciences offers many options concerning the method to be used by the researcher .These are usually quantitative and qualitative methods. However, it's very common nowadays for researchers and scholars and researchers to use both methods depending on their goal target. It's equally suggested by many scholars that for the case of a «good» case study, many sources should be used to gather evidence in order to support or reject the theory. (Yin 1993, 1994 cited in Dixon 2002)

Both quantitative and qualitative methods (equally known as mixed method or multi-strategy research) were used in the course of this research, this in a perspective of bringing more accurate information about the research questions centred on private school entrepreneurship in East Africa and also to help figure out specific patterns in the various respondents' answers.

The quantitative approach uses techniques of inquiries including positive claims and experimental strategy. With this method, the researcher usually tests a theory by specifying narrow hypothesis and the collection of data to support or refute the hypothesis. Further, an experimental design is used in which attitudes are assessed both before and after the experimental treatment. Finally, the data are collected on an instrument that measures attitudes, and the information collected is analysed using statistical procedures and hypothesis testing. (Creswell, 2002:20)

Qualitative method on its own enables the researcher or inquirer to make knowledge claims based on primarily on constructivism perspectives. This involves the systematic collection, organization and interpretation of textual material derived from talk or observation. The particularity of this approach remains the fact that it is used in the exploration of meanings of social phenomena as experienced by individual themselves, in their natural context. (Creswell, 2002:18; Malterud 2001:483)

The research has been carried in Kibera, one of the largest slums of East Africa. Considering the central question surrounding the study, it's decided and agreed upon to focus on private school entrepreneurs, teachers and pupils in selected schools. We deemed necessary to use both methods with specific task assigned to each method and its instrument. The qualitative method was used by carrying an in-depth interview with private school entrepreneurs who operate in the slum of Kibera, while the quantitative method was used to cover the overall picture of selected schools, carrying out a census and a survey looking at pupils number, fees, test scores, provision of certain facilities, all these providing us with scale data. Ordinal data were also collected by using Likert scales method to measure satisfaction in the pupil and teachers questionnaires (Best, J &Kahn 2003:318-321).

The collection of information related to this study was made possible through the following instruments:

3.1.2.1 Questionnaires

Questionnaires were distributed to a good number of school entrepreneurs in Kibera, the teachers and pupils in the selected schools. The structure of the questions was well elaborated based on a «question type» format (Bell 2005:137-138) so as to enable the researcher to gather as much accurate information as possible and get to analyze these without any major problem. They were set in quite simple way taking into account pupil's level, teachers and entrepreneurs' time constraint. In short, these questions were detached from all ambiguity and imprecision( Bell 2005:138-139) The objective of school owners' questionnaires was to find out the motivations behind their investments in the field of education especially in a slum, about the facilities offered in the process of their activities.

Teachers and pupils' questions were centred on their level of satisfaction of the quality of services provided by these entrepreneurs and what they thought were the shortcomings of these investments.

3.1.2.2 Interviews

Telephone interviews were carried from the EG West Centre (Newcastle University) with a small number of private schools entrepreneurs as well as with George Mikwa, the president of the Kenyan Independent School Association (KISA). This was done following the standardized open-ended interview type. The wordings and sequence of questions were determined in advance and all the school owners were asked the same basic questions in the same order. (Patton, 1990:288-289)

The questions ranged from main concerns on issues surrounding their motivations from setting private schools in the slum of Kibera, their point of view concerning the investment climate in the area, the regulatory environment and finally what they thought was the major gap in their provision. The latter gave answers to the same questions which were later on compared and analyzed.

3.1.2.3 Test scores

In order to instigate triangulation, the researcher requested test scores from school authorities. The objective here was to scrutinize pupils' achievements in three subjects, respectively: English language, Mathematics and Kiswahili, the local language.

It was thought earlier that the information contained in the pupils' test score would enable us to make a correlation between children personal assessment of their performances in these subjects and what they actually achieved within the academic year.

However, it's worth noting that these test scores were not obtained through standardized test, rather they were obtained thanks to the collaboration of school heads. These test scores provided meaningful information and its purpose was therefore useful in adding more knowledge to our field of enquiry (Best, J &Kahn 2003:248)

3.1.2.4 Documentary

Documentary was equally explored as another source of evidence. The main documentary that provided useful information for the study was found in presentations delivered at the CATO Institute, Washington D.C by private school entrepreneurs under the auspice of Professor Tooley and Dr Dixon. This documentary was accessible through the E.G West website and discussions were centred on private school entrepreneurship in India, Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe. In a nutshell, the entrepreneurs in their talks enlightened the audience on the background information of their business in the field of education. It was revealed here that most of these entrepreneurs or private school owners have had a longstanding experience in the educational field prior to opening their schools.

This «source- oriented» approach has had the merit of helping us determine our project as well as it did helped us to generate questions for the research (Bell 2005:123)

Another set of documentary made up of past and ongoing research on private education were equally explored. Academic articles, journals and edited books from scholars such as Tooley and Dixon(2005), Rose and Adelabu(2006), Lewin(2007), Srivastava(2007) just to name a few served as guidelines in the preparation of the overall research question and thus opened an avenue for as many sources of investigation as possible.

3.1.3 Target population and sampling

The population of this study was made up of Entrepreneurs or school owners, class teachers and pupils. The large number of private schools in Kibera catering for various social classes prohibited a systematic sample. In fact random sampling was applied in order select our sample schools and the respondents. This was conducted in such a way that each has an equal and independent chance of being selected (Best, J &Kahn 2003:13) Participants were asked to volunteer for the study and a simple random sample was done.

We were very much interested in private school entrepreneurship offering services to the poor. As such, twenty school owners were chosen. Apart from this number, five teachers each and five pupils each were selected from five different schools. Thus, the total population of 70 was administered interviews and questionnaires.

3.1.4 Reliability and Validity of the research

Reliability and validity are considered highly essential in social science research. They contribute to reassure that the instruments used in carrying the research were appropriate and effective with close regards to the central question of the study. We therefore chose to use the above mentioned instruments in the process of data collection in Kibera with close regards to these two parameters. In another words, it's advised that a quality research should produce similar results under constant conditions on all occasions. Bell (2005:117)

An utmost precaution was taken before the beginning of the study, which was to see that our instruments fit perfectly well with the research. We took upon the responsibility to ensure that our instruments of data collection for entrepreneurs, teachers and pupils were of as high quality as possible both in terms of design and content, and as unobtrusive and inoffensive as possible. (Fogelman and Comber, 2007:129)

Another nonetheless major concern was equally that related to the validity of our research with primary education and entrepreneurship in Kibera. The more valid a research is, the more credit it gives to the entire process of measuring various aspects of it content. A critical assessment and reassessment of the questionnaires and Interviews were done by colleagues and friends of the EG West Centre under the supervision of Dr Dixon, to help determine that all the questions measure what they were supposed to measure. Bell (2005:117)

However, being more complex on its own, measuring the validity evidence of our research in Kibera required us stress much of certain aspects of the instruments that were used. This was done with close respect to emphasise that is usually laid on this issue by scholars when they argue that validity evidence is based on three broad sources namely: content, relation to other variables, and construct (Best, J &Kahn 2003:282-286)

While not analysing these three latter parameters of validity as totally separate entities, we however designed our research in such a manner to arrive at credible conclusions. (Sapsford and Jupp 1996, cited in Bell 2005: 117-118)

In the perspective of rendering the research more accurate and realistic, the triangulation of multiple variables of the respondents' answers were equally done, thus making the overall study reliable and valid.

3.2 Permission and Ethics

Before engaging ourselves on the field for the research, a letter of permission for the study and data gathering was sent to the owners of the selected schools in Kibera. This was done thanks to the collaboration and support of George Mikwa, the president Kenyan Independent School Association (KISA). Various principals and school owners received these letters prior to the investigation. The latter stated in precise words our main objective for the study, the appropriate schedule as well as the people that we thought could actively be involved in the process of data collection. . We equally reassured both the school owners and respondents that the information gathered in this course shall be treated with strict sense of confidentiality and anonymity, which are considered the norm for the conduct of research. (BERA 2004, p8)

3.3 Conducting the research in Kibera

Prior to undertaking this research, a series of reflexion related to its management and feasibility were conducted with friends and colleagues. We initially thought of carrying the same research in Cameroon. Some contacts were already established to serve this purpose. However, due to time and financial constraints, it was advised by my supervisor that the study should be carried rather in Kenya. In fact, there was little evidence ahead that the study, if done in Cameroon would be reliable and valid considering the fact that we were relying of a journalist in the distribution of the questionnaires and sending back at Newcastle.

Ø Kibera was known to be one of the largest slums in East Africa and therefore, there were chances to find private schools catering for the poor in the locality.

Ø Information at our disposal revealed the existence of a Union of school entrepreneurs in Kenya, thus offering the opportunity to get more knowledge on private school entrepreneurs and their functioning body

Ø A good number a research and reports had already been done on the slum of Kibera and exploring the existing documentation was to be of great supplement.

Ø Finally, officials of the EG West Centre (Newcastle University) had very strong ties with entrepreneurs in Kenya and this helped enormously in the process of data collection.

All the research questionnaires were channelled to George Mikwa at Nairobi, Kenya and he made sure that these questionnaires reached our respondents. Upon completing the questionnaires, the same George sent these back to us at the EG West for evaluation and analysis.

Finally, all the interviews with the president of KISA and other school owners were carried from the EG West centre with support from my supervisor and friends.

3.4 Limitation of the study

No proposed research study is without limitation, this is simply because due to time constraint and lack of extended financial resources, it was practically impossible for us to investigate primary education and Entrepreneurship in all the slums of East Africa. Our study did henceforth focused on a specific slum, that of Kibera with foci on twenty private school entrepreneurs, twenty five teachers and twenty five pupils. Though case study is equally considered flexible, the realities here in these schools would not necessarily reflect those in some other private schools. This means that our results cannot to an extent be generalized. The reason for this being that, not all the teachers and pupils living in and attending private schools in Kibera did took part in the questionnaire administration. We were aware of the fact that criticism may arise from population responses as some may consider their point biased. Further, due to financial constraints, the questionnaires were elaborated and sent to Kenya through the President of the Kenyan school Association (KISA) for effective collection of data. This may be considered another shortcoming of our procedure as it was not done personally by the researcher. However, specific measures were taken prior to sending the questions on the field and the analysis equally took note of this aspect.

3.5 Data presentation and Analysis

Soon after collecting the data in Kibera, they were channelled to the EG West Centre. The information gathered through interviews and questionnaire from our sample population was organized, coded, recorded, edited, analyzed and interpreted to determine the factors surrounding primary education and Entrepreneurship in East Africa (Bell 2005:203)

The qualitative data contained in questionnaires and interviews was scrutinized in order to find patterns and similarities within the data. Thanks to the technical assistance of supervisor and training staff, it was possible to generate codes to analyze the in depth qualitative data.

The statistical software SPSS served as principal tool of analyzing and reporting the quantitative results of our findings in a succinct way (Cramer 2003: 154)

This wonderful software actually enabled us to consider aspects related to statistical interference and ordinal, nominal and scale variable. All these were analyzed to allow us to answer questions about the owners' interests in investment, the regulatory environment and the investment climate, and the satisfaction level perceived by teachers and pupils (Cramer, 2003: 223)

All data sets were adequately compared in order to determine the means and the median of our findings in related schools (means, modes and medians). The central tendency was equally used where appropriate.

The Pearson's correlation was used to determine the relationship between teachers and pupils' level of satisfaction in the selected schools and their degree of involvement in academics. An interpretative approach of statistical difference was equally carried to figure out the sampling error in the control group, especially with pupils test scores (Best, J &Kahn 2003:393-395)

This correlation analysis has helped to discover the relationship between the investments in any kind in the entrepreneurs' schools and the pupils' achievements. With this, we were able to say if their actions were having either a positive or a negative impact. (Myers & Well, 2003:46)

From this information, a detailed analysis was done with specific regards to our study's central questions and sub questions.

3.6 Conclusion

In this chapter, we have given a thorough picture of our research method including process of collecting our data in Kibera. Case study was found appropriate and steps governing such an approach have been well followed. Hence, a multi strategy source plan was adopted for this purpose. Questionnaires, interviews, documentary etc were used to access related information on primary education and Entrepreneurship in one of the largest slums of East Africa.

All the 20 Entrepreneurs, 25teachers and 25pupils' kindly responded to our study. Together with information gathered through past and ongoing research papers, a detailed report of the analysis of their answers has been provided. It has been assumed that all these data from various sources will likely provide concrete and reliable results of the study. Specific parameters such as ethical issues, limitation of the study as well as data presentation and analysis were equally addressed in this chapter.

The following chapter presents our results. Subsequently a further step from there is taken to draw a series of conclusions.

4.1 Introduction

This chapter sets out the analysis of the data collected in the slum of Kibera during May 2009 in order to attempt to answer the overall question of this thesis which is:

`How and why do private school entrepreneurs contribute to education for all in Kenya?'

This chapter will be divided up into five main parts starting with a section to set the scene concerning private schools for the poor in Kibera. These will provide analysis of the data to answer the overall thesis question through the following sub questions:

· What are the entrepreneurs' major motivations for investment in the field of education?

· Have these schools suffered from the government's introduction of 'Free Primary Education (2003)' in terms of enrolment?

· What is the satisfaction level from their investment as perceived by pupils and teachers?

· What factors could be identified as the major gaps in this type of provision?

The final question acts as a conclusion to this chapter. The next section provides background to the schools and the pupils and teachers who participate within them.

4.2 Background

This research was carried out in 20 private schools in the slum of Kibera, the largest slum in East Africa. Data were gathered via questionnaires from 20 school owners, 25 student and 25 teachers from five schools. Interviews were carried out with George Mikwa, the president of the Kenya Independent School Association (KISA) as well as four school owners and directors. The following background information will be necessary in understanding the results of the findings and being able to put these in context.

4.2.1 School and school owners

There are roughly 116 private schools currently operating within the slum area of Kibera (Dixon, 2009). Data were gathered in 20 of these schools. The schools operate their own Association, which is the Kenyan Independent Schools Association (KISA), an association that was set up and registered in 1999 with the Kenyan Government. The association draws its membership specifically from non formal schools (Private). In tracing back the origins of this association, its current president George Mikwa (a private school entrepreneur himself) recounts that:

«The idea of KISA was to have an umbrella body that is going to help us promote its activities...the actual sense was that, we had Kenyan children and we were teaching them in our schools and of course the quality was not all that bad, but most of the children had grown in poor families. We wanted to bring on board all the private schools so that we could have strength. We believe that the many we are, we could achieve our lobby activities so as to achieve our objectives that were set and agreed earlier, that is improving quality in our schools and responding adequately to the people's need for

Of the school owners that participated in this research 12 were male and 8 were female (table 1). Schools were set up between the years of 1980 and 2006, therefore the oldest school was almost 30 years old with the most recent school being established for 3 years (see figure 1). The result confirms that some of these schools have been operating for decades, it seems safe to say that the data gathered for this research backs up that explored in the literature review and generally these private schools are not fly-by-night businesses ripping off the poor as some critics of private education for the assert.

The information contained in the data equally reveals the age of these schools owners. Out of the 20 schools 19 told us their ages. The youngest school entrepreneur was aged 30 years old, while the oldest was aged 64 with a mean age of 42 years (table 2).

Private schools in the slum of Kibera are owned by various categories of people. With a limited number of schools involved in the research (20 schools), the study observed 3 main categories of ownership type. The first category worth 50% of the schools operating in this area, are community-owned. This implies that the functioning standards and the school's targets are decided and implemented by a ruling body with a strong support from the community essentially made up of local elites and parents association. The second category is that of individual proprietors (45%). This type of `ownership' implies that the individual through their own personal initiatives and funding set up schools and autonomously operate these with or without any external support. Finally, the third category (only 5%) is made up of partnership owned schools (see figure3). This last set of ownership type draws its resources and establishes the basis of its functioning on a joined initiative, generally with some NGOs (Non Governmental Organisations) or with another group of entrepreneurs.

4.2.2 The Slum of Kibera

Kibera is known to be one of the largest informal settlements in East Africa. The term «slums» typically implies live conditions that are overcrowded with very little access to basic necessities. Electricity, sanitation, clean water is simply a mere dream for the bulk of the population living in this environment. According a recent study in the middle of last year by Stefano Marras, a mapping specialist, the numerical dimension of Kibera is set between 2.3 and 2.5 sq kilometres and the total population living in the slum can be most likely estimated to 220,000 and 250,000 people.

When asked why children attended private schools in Kibera rather than walking to one of the five government schools that are situated on the periphery it seemed that attending a school that was close to the home was one priority. The pupils in this research all stated that they travel to school on foot implying that it is important to them and their parents to live relatively close to their schools. When asked about their homes pupils said that they consisted of either a single room or there were a maximum of two rooms. None of the homes had a kitchen and only three homes had access to an inside toilet. The number of people living in the family home ranged from two to 11 with a mean of six people (see figure 5).

One of the most striking parts of the research brought forward the fact that in almost all cases, the pupils parents suffered from abject poverty. When asked if their parents (both father and mother) had a paid job only three mothers out of the total 25 undertook paid employment. These ranged from business, cleaner and labourer. The rest of the 22 pupils' mothers are jobless. Similarly only four of the pupils' fathers undertook paid employment as labourers, one had died and the remaining 20 have no employment (tables 3&4).

By implication, most parents in the slum do not have the financial resources that can enable them to address their offspring's educational needs. So it is important to address how these parents are able to pay the school fees in order to attend a private school and why they would do so. At this effect, George Mikwa argued that:

«In the ending 1980s and 1990s the government and public schools in Kenya used to implement a cost sharing policy for school enrolments. The amount per pupils mounted sometimes up to £40 and parents, who in the greater majority are very poor, raise money for the children education through crops growing and selling, found it extremely costly. Then many private schools started operating around the community charging lower fees... Then the government introduced Free Primary Education in 2003... When something is said to be free in Kenya, you would expect everybody to be there. The parents realised that the quality has dropped and thought that it was better to sacrifice and pay some money in private schools so that their children could get good education.»

4.3 Motivations for Investment in the field of Education

This section looks at the reasons why entrepreneurs find the field of education an area of investment and why they are motivated to set up schools in a poor or low income area. In tracing back the story line of these young set of new entrepreneurs in Africa, the sub sections that make up this part carefully throws more light in uncovering their foremost motivations for investment and henceforth enables us to gather accurate information and general perception of the prevailing investment climate in the field of education in Kibera.

4.3.1 Lives within the community

When asked why the school owners set up schools in Kibera several issues arose. What seemed to be a major factor was that school owners lived within Kibera itself. For example, typical of the statements from the school owners regarding this are the following:

«I have stayed in the area for 15 years and had discovered the need of starting a school in the area...» (School owner A (Dagoretti Youth Centre))

«I started a school as I am a resident of Kibera» (School owner B (Future Kids Academy).

This trend is reinforced by the fact that, being part of the community or having resided in the community for a good number of years, these entrepreneurs have a mastery of the socio-economic field and are somehow closed to their target: The population living in the slums.

4.3.2 Inadequate schools in the area

The second major reason given for setting up a private school was that the school owners saw a lack of education for the children of Kibera. Even though the World Bank provided £55 million in 2003 to assist the introduction of Free Primary Education (FPE) there is still a lack of government school provision for children from the slum. According to school owner A:

«We have very few public schools in the area and I was touched when I used to see idle children in the area» (School Owner A).

«I set up my private school in order to assist children from low income families to access schools as there are inadequate schools in the area.» (School owner J)

In addition to this, a question was asked to pupils involved in the study. This sets out to find out if they had attended a public school prior to enrolling into a private one. Out of the 25 pupils, 11 had attended a public school before joining the private. When asked why they chose a private school where fees had to be paid rather than a free government school the overwhelming majority stated that the conditions for learning in the government school were not suitable enough for them. Some examples of their arguments are:

«The classes in public school are over populated and the teachers are not committed because they sometimes don't teach us at all» (Student 16, school C)

«My class in the public school was very congested and my teacher never paid attention to what I was doing during lessons or if I was performing well in the exams. I felt bad about it because I realised that I was not learning anything.»(Student 25, school E)

These statements seem to reinforce the arguments provided by the school owners that government schools for the children of Kibera are not suitable owing to the cramped conditions and the attitude towards children from the slum. Having a school that one can access in one's own community seems to be a major reason for private schools to exist.

4.3.3 Focus on orphans, poor and vulnerable children

Another motivation stated by the school owners for setting up their schools in Kibera has to do with the empathy and concern for the poorest, orphans and vulnerable children. They wanted to offer the opportunity to orphans and vulnerable children who could not afford to be educated in their institutions. In stressing on the importance of this trend, some of school owners reported that:

«The area has two developed academies which targets pupil from relatively rich families who are able to pay the high rates of school fees they charge. This led us to start up this school to cater for children who were not able to enrol into public schools and other academies for one reason or the other. In fact we wanted to give orphans and vulnerable children the opportunity to have access to education.»(School owner B. St Stephen Children Centre & school)

«I was so much concerned with the fate of orphans, destitute and neglected children. As a Christian, I felt so bad when I use to see them around. I first started teaching them in my house and seeing that the number was increasing, the community and some members of the church helped me to set up a school for this particular group of children.» (School owner F (Support Orphans and Destitute Academy)

These factors are extremely important in understanding the investment phenomenon taking place in many developing countries. In this case, the mushrooming of private schools catering for the poor and the needier in the slum of Kibera is partly attributed to the huge number of less educated children living in the community.

4.3.4 Profit motive

The school owners that took part in the research acknowledge charging fees to their pupils for many purposes. Some of these costs are either allocated for uniforms, text books or examination fees. Although not every school applies this fee scheme for all the pupils' expenses, it is however worth noting that all of the 20 schools in this study charge a registration fee. The monthly fees for children in the research schools range from £3.97 to £13.49 (see figure 6). These fees are for many of the school owners, the principal financial income of their schools and are used in covering the expenses related to the functioning of the business. The main costs for the school owners are teacher salaries.

Although it has been noted that all these schools charge fees on business principles for their effective functioning, our study has brought forward the fact that, a good number of these schools, if not all of them, equally offer considerable support in the form of scholarships to the needier pupils. We specifically laid an emphasis on this issue while setting the questions to school owners. It was found that close to a relatively high proportion of the schools do offer scholarship to two categories of pupils. This form of support accounted for up to 65% of scholarships awarded for orphans and 25% for outstanding children (tables 5 and 6). Not absolutely refuting the fact that they make some money out of their investments, many of the school owners however do emphasise that their investment aimed first and foremost, at covering the educational needs of the population in which they themselves live. Offering assistance to such students contribute to make the awarding institution a valuable one and thus motivate many other pupils and parents to cast their choice on it for future enrolments. This could be seen as a marketing policy taking place in a competitive business arena.

4.3.5 Equity

Equity issues in private schools in Kibera are, according to our study, taken with the highest level of importance. The fact that the businesses operate in slums and cater for low income families is to an extent the sign of their wanting to implicate all categories of people into education. As the research presents it, Kibera is a large slum with a massive number of poor children living altogether. The school owners tackle equity issues from different perspectives allowing those from families where there is no income, or no parents have access to education alongside those who can afford the fees and have a more stable family life.

4.3.5.1 Opportunities

The private schools in Kibera play a fundamental role in filling the gaps created by educational needs in this community due to the growing number of people. By offering less expensive education to those who can afford and by allocating special funds in the form of scholarship to a particular group of pupils as stated earlier, many children of the slum are given chances to participate in the school systems and do benefit from the advantages offered by the schools. In addition to this financial support ranging from £4 to close to £397 in very rare instances (see table 7). School owner A (Dagoretti Youth centre) stresses on some of the important issues which are applied in his institution in order for all the students to feel that they are treated equally and comfortable. Among these are:

- A flexible admission criteria for all the students irrespective of their age and social background;

For some other institutions like school G (Mukuni community centre) school F (Zafarani School) and school I (Future Kids academy), specific emphasis is being laid on lower and affordable school fees to all as well as free teaching /learning materials. Other benefits include the teaching of civic education and free immunization campaigns against some diseases.

All these factors put together contribute significantly to alleviating the cost of educational provision in these non formal settings of Kibera. It equally makes the learning environment attractive to many pupils and parents who for some reasons feel excluded.

4.3.5.2 Gender

On a similarly important note of equity, is the gender issue. That is the education of both male and female pupils in equal proportions. The girl's education in the slums of Kibera is a priority and the private schools that operate in this environment in their rallying policies do well in promoting this trend. Even though our study did not particularly looked at this issue from a separate angle, the statistics for pupils enrolments in the 20 schools that took part in to the study actually show an overall satisfactory result. Girls' enrolments in private schools in the slum of Kibera for this academic year substantiate this speculation. From the enrolment statistics of 19 schools out of the 20, girls' enrolment range from minimum of 47 pupils to a maximum of 560 pupils, with a mean of 205.47 while boys' enrolment ranged from a minimum of 38 pupils to a maximum of 470 and a mean of 206.42 (see tables 8&9). The following figures and tables illustrate these relative equitable enrolments for boys and girls in private schools catering for the poor in Kibera, Kenya. In a nutshell girls are given the same learning opportunities in the slum.

Another important aspect of the gender issue in the private school provision in Kibera is related to the employability of the staff. The study in five specific schools reveals that women are equally given high esteem when it comes to teaching. In fact out of the 25 teachers, 12 were female and 13 male. This fact stresses the equal opportunities scheme that is applied by the entrepreneurs while recruiting staff into their institutions.

4.3.6 Regulations of private schools in Kenya

This part of our research sets out to critically analyse the regulatory climate in the private educational sector in Kenya as well as finding out if at all, the prevailing environment is indeed conducive for effective investment. The first impression that came out after a series of questions with the school owners is that, effective regulatory guidelines for investors seem to be flawed or simply non-existent. In the absence of such vital information, it would be difficult to assess the level of government willingness to promote and expand private investment especially in the field of education.

When we asked the school owners what were the basic requirements needed to open a private school in Kenya, they mentioned the following:

The school owners acknowledge that it may not be easy to meet up with all these requirements. This is due to fact that they are financially limited and do not have access to funds that can help fulfil all the requirements.

Surprisingly enough, the school entrepreneurs seem to be quite happy with the regulatory climate. Many reasons substantiate their convictions and satisfactions on the issue. 19 school owners out of the 20 gave a straight forward answer stating that the regulatory climate is quite conducive for investment in the field of education. We went forward in asking some of them their reasons for an overall satisfaction over the regulation of the private education system in Kibera. The answers were both informative and encouraging:

«The regulatory climate is very conducive because Kenyans however poor they are, take education as a priority. Kenya is a third world country where many people are still striving to catch up with new technologies, globalisation issues, different life styles and we believe therefore that education is the key area to driving these. Many Kenyans want to move out of poverty through education. Indeed Kenya is conducive for investment in education because the population is growing at high rate and therefore, there is a need for all these children to be educated.» (School Owner O, the Amaf schools)

«The regulatory climate for private schools in Kenya is quite conducive. For ages now, many parents have opted for private education. The public schools are offering sub-standard quality due to free education. Private schools are on their own well managed with quality curriculum activities.» (School owner I (Future Kids Academy)

These points of view, somehow denotes that the school owners understand very little what is meant by regulatory climate. Though having the merit of throwing a light in what the prevailing regulatory climate would likely be in Kenya, this opinion is not shared by all the school owners. The assertion that the climate is conducive enough for investment is disproportionately adopted. In fact, a more sceptical school owner K (Rofra Academy) goes beyond this fact to conclude that:

By implication, this means that concerning the basic requirements for setting up a private school in Kibera, nothing seem to emerge clearly on what has to be done or what the guidelines in the regulations state. It would seem more likely that the private schools do not abide by any regulations, operating in an `illegal' settlement anyway. If school inspectors do find or arrive at the school it would seem safe to suggest that bribes change hands or the Association deals with such issues.

In any case, our study has shown that to a great extent, the entrepreneurs feel satisfy with the investment climate that exists in Kenya in general and in the slum of Kibera in particular. Such a climate would seem to be favourable to stimulate competition, innovation, effectiveness and efficiency between those entrepreneurs running schools. This would seem to be the case owning to the large number of schools operating as well as the choice and accountability provided to the parents because of the large numbers of schools. A situation like that does offer many alternatives for increasing the socio economic segments of the population that make up the slum of Kibera.

4.4 Have these schools suffered from the government's introduction of 'Free Primary Education (2003)' in terms of enrolment?

This section seeks to investigate the impact that Free Primary Education has had on the enrolment of pupils in private schools of Kibera since 2003. Free Primary Education (FPE) was introduced in Kenya in the year 2003 by the Government aided by International development partners. This initiative was fulfilled by the government as part of the NARC's (National Rainbow Coalition) election pledge in the general campaign of the year 2002. It set to abolish fees and levies in the cost of basic education and to offer greater opportunity to the population to have access to free educational training.

As part of this research, it was decided to carry out an investigation on the enrolment number of pupils in the private schools before and after 2003. The results show that many schools in Kibera are growing increasingly in terms of pupils' enrolments. Some of these schools like Dagoretti (school A) started in 1999 with a total of 45 pupils and this were able to enrol up to 500 pupils. Another typical example is the Amaf School started their activities in 2003, the year of the introduction of FPE with a total of 15 pupils and which for this academic year have enrolled 600 pupils.

The general view as the figures below present is that the private schools in the slum of Kibera seem to be doing relatively well in terms of their pupil numbers despite the huge national campaign for Free Primary Education. Therefore even though there is `free' government education on the outskirts of Kibera, parents still choose to pay fees in private school. Therefore if there is a rejection of the government system this needs to be investigated. There

seem to be several reasons for this highlighted by this research. As stated earlier, the 11 pupils out of the 25 in our research who declared have been in public schools before attribute this failure to meet its objectives by many factors. The quality of teaching, teacher's attention, and congestion in the classrooms are for instance some of the key arguments that brought back these pupils to the private schools in Kibera. To sum up, it would seem that this research shows that even after the introduction of free primary education in 2003 some parents still prefer to pay to send their children to private schools. On the contrary, the figures from this study show an increase in pupils' enrolments after the year 2003. In fact, one could assume that the private educational system in Kibera is playing a leading role in providing education to the population despite charging fees. Their cost however is very limited and extremely competitive if compared to the cost that are charged for uniforms, books, parents association and many others in government schools, supposedly free.

4.5What is the satisfaction level of entrepreneur's investments as perceived by pupils and teachers?

One of the most important issues arising in any competitive business is the satisfaction level expressed by the recipients of a given product. Back to the field of education, all the people who part- take to the functioning of the business, the investor himself excluded, are the target people that can make a fundamental assessment of this satisfaction. For scale purposes we had chosen to gather data from the pupils who are the direct target audience for which the product is designed and delivered and the teachers whom the investors use in selling the product to the latter. The findings will therefore help to ascertain what is most appreciated and what is less desirable from pupils and teachers points of view.

4.5.1 Pupil Satisfaction

The study used a sample of 25 pupils for testing the satisfaction level, thus 5 students from five different private schools in Kibera. Questions ranging from their satisfaction level on several issues were asked to these children. Henceforth, the satisfaction questions included:

- The school facilities (toilets, library, drinking water, chairs, blackboard etc...)

We equally set to analyse the pupils' tests score on English, Mathematics and Kiswahili, the local language. The information contained in the test scores were used to make a correlation between the level of satisfaction and the level of achievement in their respective institutions.

13 pupils out of 25 said the teachers' ability in their subject was excellent and 12 said it was good. In addressing the teachers' punctuality for lessons, 16 said it was excellent while 9 said it was good. Teachers' attendance rate at school got a positive feedback as 20 pupils thought it was excellent and 5 said it was rather good. Concerning their fairness for students, 18 opted for an excellent point of view while 7 said it was good.

Rating the physical aspect of their respective schools, 12 pupils said the school buildings were good, on the other side, 9 of their peer thought the buildings are poor and 4 stated that they are very poor. Finally the school facilities were diversely appreciated by these pupils. In fact 15 said the facilities were good, while 6 of them argued that they were poor and 4 said they were very poor.

From a general perspective, the pupils expressed their overwhelming satisfaction over most of the issues as the figures displayed below present. According to these pupils, the teachers in private schools in Kibera are very committed to teaching them. The teachers all possess a mastery of subject matter, are very punctual for their lessons and treat their students fairly this to the greatest satisfaction of the pupils. However two negative responses emerged from their opinions. These same students gave various appreciations while rating their respective school buildings and facilities. Though few students think the infrastructures and facilities are good, others rate these as «poor» or «very poor» for the rest .

Although no standardised test was set for the purpose of this research, the pupils' test scores in three subjects were gathered from the school authorities portray an overall good performance in English, Mathematics, and Kiswahili .The highest score for the 12 pupils who rated their English lessons as good is 70/100 while this same score is 90/100 for the 10 pupils who rated the same lesson as Excellent (see figure 18).The pupils were asked to rate their own level of Maths. 7 of them said their level was excellent, 10 said it was good, and 5 said it was poor. The correlation of these ratings with their tests scores however reveals that student 13 of Future Kids Academy who actually thought his level of Maths was excellent seem to be doing very bad. On the contrary of student 23 of River of Life Primary school, whose results shows that he is actually doing well on the subject while he thought his performance was rather poor (see figure 19).Out of the five sample schools were these scores were collected, the Amaf school has the best performance on English test scores while St Christine has the lowest performance. Student 6 of St Michael particularly distinguishes himself as he emerges as one of the best of his school on this subject while the overall scores in his school are relatively good (See figure 20). On Kiswahili, the local language, that Amaf schools once more emerge with the best test scores comprised between 90/100 and above. Again here St Christine's performance is the lowest from a general point of view (see figure 21).

This information is to attest that in spite of the poor state of the schools buildings, the inner environment seems to be conducive for effective learning/teaching to take place. At the end of the day, apart from the perpetual complaints of school buildings and facilities, (which we must admit is common to most under developed countries educational systems private or public) it is safe to conclude that to an extent, the pupils attending private schools in Kibera are satisfied with the entrepreneurs' investments.

4.5.2 Teacher satisfaction

Considered the linking point between the investors and the target audience (pupils), teachers in the educational field play an important role in the process of delivering what could be described as the `product' that is the teaching and learning. As such, an analysis of the teacher's own observations of the investment was deemed necessary. In order to assess teachers' satisfaction, questionnaires were sent to 25 teachers of 5 private schools in Kibera. The questions sought to find out if they were happy with their working environments with regards to different aspects. The 12 female and 13 male teachers' age of the five schools ranged between 21 years old and 41 years old, with a mean of 28 yrs and a standard deviation of 6 yrs. (See table and Figure 22)

The study equally presents a valuable point related to the teachers of private schools in Kibera: The qualifications or better still their highest education level. Of the 25 teachers in the 5 schools, 7 of them have attained the secondary school level (school up to age 16-18), while 14 have a college certificate and 4 of them have a diploma.(see table 11). These two factors (Teachers' age and qualifications) are a determinant factor in assessing their satisfaction level. The following development addresses this issue.

In understanding the degree of their satisfaction, we set to scrutinize their respective opinions towards certain issues, the main important consisting of:

Only 3 teachers out of 25 reported to be satisfied with their salaries while 13 said they were dissatisfied and the remaining 9 very dissatisfied. Their average monthly salaries ranged from a minimum wage of £28 to a maximum of £95, thus a mean of 53.94 and a standard deviation 19.921(see table 12). Most importantly the average monthly amount earned by teachers differs from one another depending of their highest educational level. The teachers' whose highest education level is up to secondary school earn less money than their colleagues whose highest education level is up to a diploma (see figure 24).

The study equally found that in most schools, the agreed amount of salary was not paid to teachers on a regular basis. This is considered in serious handicap in the teachers' motivations as more than 40% teachers said this was one of their first important problems with private schools in Kibera (see figure 25).

Over 96% of the teachers expressed that they were satisfied with the amount of leave that is granted to them in their schools and just 1teacher out of 25 declared being dissatisfied. This is quite valuable information for the teachers in Kibera. The holidays or leave period offer an opportunity to focus on something else not related to teaching and thus prove to be revitalising in terms of energy.

The status in the community in many developing countries is an important aspect which determines the incentive for joining the teaching profession by many youngsters. For the case of teachers of private schools in the slum of Kibera, 1 out of 25 felt «very satisfied» with his social status, while 19 reveal they are «quite satisfied» and 5 expressed a negative point of view concerning the issue (see table 13)

The term work environment means the cooperation ties that prevail on one hand between the teachers and the school administration and on the other, between the teachers and the pupils both in class and in the community. At this effect, our study found that there was a divergence of opinions. 1 teacher out of 25 said they were satisfied with the working environment, while 11 said they were quite satisfied. On the negative side of the group 10 teachers declared being dissatisfied and finally 3 of them reported as being very dissatisfied.(See figure 27)

The facilities offered to teachers play an invaluable role in the knowledge transmission process. Without these, the act of teaching would simply be more difficult especially when dealing with children from poor homes whose parents cannot afford all the learning materials. As the figure below presents it, a vast majority of teachers (17) do not value the facilities that are put at their disposal. They feel dissatisfied with the overall facilities in their schools. The remaining teachers are divided into three categories: 1 teacher says he is very satisfied with the facilities, 5 are quite satisfied and finally 2 teachers are very dissatisfied (see figure 28).

Concerning the school buildings, an unprecedented number of teachers expressed their dissatisfaction. Like it was the case with pupils, the teachers in a great majority think their school infrastructures including the buildings and the furniture are very poor. 2 teachers said they were either very satisfied or satisfied, while 14 said they were dissatisfied and finally, 9 out of the 25 said they were very dissatisfied.

Finally, a question was asked to the teachers requesting them to rank in the order of importance, what they thought were the crucial problems they face as teachers in the slum of Kibera. Three major points emerged from this question. 19 teachers reported that poor infrastructures was their first and most important problem follow by lack of facilities which 17 teachers said was of second importance and finally, a number of 14 teachers mentioned irregular salaries as the third problem.

It would seem that teachers' satisfaction in private school investment in Kibera (taking this to be infrastructure etc) varies from one teacher to the other. However, our study has shown that the satisfaction of teachers in Kibera is quite difficult to assess from an individual points of view. The general trend that could be noted here is that in a great majority of cases the teachers believe that issues regarding their salaries, the infrastructures and the buildings in private schools of Kibera need to be addressed.

4.6 Factors identified as the major gaps in private provision

Having scrutinised various aspects of private school investments in Kibera, we have come to realise that the actions undertaken by this type of entrepreneurs in the provision of education in the slums is highly appreciated by the populations. A typical proof to this fact would be the number of pupils enrolled in the schools. Private schools in Kibera have had the merit of bringing the educational setting close to its people thus resolving the tremendous problem of travelling distance faced by people in developing countries.

It has equally been revealed that, even though the Kenyan government introduced Free Primary Education in the year 2003, the private schools in the slum have not suffered from a deficit in their enrolments; instead the figures available for this research have noted an increasing number of pupils enrolling in non formal education after 2003. This, as presented above, is due to the fact that Kibera is one of the most populated slums in East Africa, and therefore needs enough educational institutions to get the children educated, an action which cannot be left alone to the government. In a more specific term, the parents and pupils of Kibera seem to have set their heart on the private educational sector, which according to them, does deliver education of quality with teachers paying special attention to pupils evolution both at school and in the community, unlike in the public sector where classes are overcrowded.

However, our study, though of a very small scale has noticed some shortcomings in this form of provision. The interviews that were distributed to pupils and teachers, the main recipients of the business initiative, provided us with several shortcomings:

- The private schools in Kibera are not regulated. The flawed nature of this aspect of the business would always lead to a difficult climate for investors and for the recipients. In order to render the business more competitive and profitable to all and especially the needy, there is a need to reassess the regulatory principles governing private school investments. To this effect, the authority power of the KISA could play a greater role here if the regulation of non formal schools in Kibera was entrusted to them. They would certainly contribute to a better harmonisation and a follow up of private schools standards.

- The private schools in Kibera suffer from the absence of buildings , infrastructures, facilities, teaching and learning material, just to name a few.

The absences of the latter which is in the opinion of many critics, a serious handicap in enhancing teaching/learning in an area such as Kibera and in generally in all developing countries. However, considering the community itself is extremely poor, the states of the schools are likely to reflect those of its houses and buildings. It would actually be difficult for an entrepreneur to invest in modern school buildings while his sole budget is derived from pupils' fees. After all, the general trend portrays a satisfaction of parents and children in learning priorities and costs offered by these same schools.

- Finally there is need to critically address financial issues in this form of provision. Our study revealed that almost all the schools incomes were drawn from school fees paid by pupils. Finance seem to be key problem in third world entrepreneurship as there a few financial resources available for investors who nurture the desire to run a business of their own.

Apart from these few points, the general consensus of both pupils and teachers is that they are quite satisfied by investment initiatives of the school entrepreneurs in Kibera.

Chapter Five - Conclusion, Summary and the Way Forward

At the end of our study centred on primary education and entrepreneurship in East Africa, a number of information and reflection have emerged from the case study of Kibera concerning the contributions of the private educational entrepreneurs in combating illiteracy and boosting the United Nations campaign of Universal Primary Education (UPE). The high demand for private schools provision and the mushrooming of independent schools catering for the poor in Kibera as well as in other countries in Africa have been noted in the course of this study. Further, some impressions have equally been drawn from the actions undertaken by educational entrepreneurs in Kenya in the perspective of improving the quality of their schools.

This chapter sets out to discuss our study findings and their relation to existing literature so as to be able to determine if they answer all the research questions. From there on, suggestions and implications will be developed so that education in Africa in general and Entrepreneurship can evolve positively and contribute efficiently to the development process of the continent. The research has revealed the overwhelming existence of many private schools catering for low income families across Africa. Whether in Ghana, Nigeria, or Kenya, it has been noted that the greater majority of parents living in slums and remote areas give more credit to private schools, this taking into account the number of enrolments in these settings.

In Kibera where we set out to focus the study, our findings clearly states the key role played by educational entrepreneurs in the general process of offering quality educational provision at affordable costs to the entire population living together in the slum. From a critical stand point, we were amazed to notice that a good number of these entrepreneurs live in the communities in which they have set their schools (see Tooley and Dixon 2005) and it denotes that these entrepreneurs generally individuals with backgrounds in education; do have at heart the education of the children of the development of their respective communities. It was found that the schools owners have either been trained as teachers in the government for some time or simply have been teaching in private schools for a good number of years prior to establishing their own schools. Having such a background can only be of greatest importance in a project like providing education to the mass.

Questioning their motivations for investments in the field of education, the general view point which emerged was the fact that the overall quality level of education in the public sector was left to be desired with overcrowded classrooms and absence of professional conscience from its teachers. The entrepreneurs did mention that there were no adequate government schools in their localities. Being themselves parents, they felt the utmost desire to provide their offspring with quality education at affordable cost. Their investments were equally geared towards bringing the school settings close to the pupils and henceforth solving the problems of long distance schools (see Tooley and Dixon 2006). Another striking reason was the peculiar attention given to socially excluded children, vulnerable children and the poorest. The research revealed that considerable amount of money in forms of scholarship and financial assistance was allocated in most schools to orphans and the brightest children. Equally on a more specific side, the school owners made sure that the standards and quality of their schools remained very positive, this in the perspective to secure the loyalty of their pupils and attract more students in a long run given the highly competitive environment in which they operate.

By investing in such an important sector of a country's life, the entrepreneurs do not only think of the financial outcomes as it is claimed by some critics (see Lewin 2007, Rose 2006).Indeed they charge school fees to pupils and this is somehow the only source of their funding. The private schools in Kibera rely solely on the contributions derived from students' tuition to run effectively. However parents and community members apparently do not find any problem with the charges in the private sector provided they are satisfied with the children progress.

Looking at the question related to regulatory issues and investment climate in Kenya, the study came out with no specific guidelines regarding it. Based on the answers that were given by school entrepreneurs, we assumed that effective regulatory guidelines for investors seem to be flawed or simply nonexistent. In such an instance, it would be quite difficult to assess government willingness to expand and promote private investment. However we noted that the private school owners were quite pleased with the situation considering the huge number of private schools existing in the slum.

The Free Primary Education campaign launched in Kenya in the year 2003 has not ha d a major impact on pupils enrolments in private schools, our study reveals. Earlier before the initiative, private schools in Kenya already existed and years after it, many pupils still attend private schools. From the responses gathered through questionnaires, it has been noted an increasing number of enrolments in private schools of Kibera after the year 2003.Some pupils equally mentioned that prior to enrolling in private schools; they had earlier attended government schools and were not satisfied with the overall system in spite of the fact that it was supposedly free. Hence, the private schools for the poor in Kibera can still claim leadership over the government schools in terms of provision thanks the importance which is being attached to quality education in these settings. The state might be the sole responsible for making the reality of the delivering of universal right of primary education to the poor of Kibera and Africa as it is claimed by Lewin(2007), however our research shows that this assertion is not generally accepted by the population concerned. They actually know what is good for them.

Measuring the satisfaction level of these investments as perceived both by pupils and teachers, the general trend that emerged is the overall contentment with the functioning system of private schools in Kibera. Pupils said to be happy with their teachers' ability in their respective subject. The degree of teacher's involvement in private schools is likely to out pass that of their colleagues in government schools. This same phenomenon was revealed earlier by Tooley and Dixon with the case of their study in India were they found that there was a feverish classroom activity going on in private schools were they called unannounced.

Teachers in private schools in Kibera as it is likely the case in other countries are very punctual and always present in schools and in addition, they pay extra attention to their pupils, treating them fairly and all this in a very disciplined environment. The reason behind all the qualities observed with teachers here may be related to the scarcity of job opportunities in developing countries especially in remote areas. The prevailing competitive environment warrants the teachers to take their duty seriously if they want to be kept by the school administration and the community. However nearly all the pupils taking part to this research admitted their disappointment concerning the schools infrastructures but did not stress so much on it as what matter the most for these pupils was the knowledge that they were able to gain from such dilapidated structures.

On their own, teachers expressed relative satisfaction with their working environment, the number of days allocated for leave of holidays within the academic year and their social status in the community. From a general point of view, what constitutes the major handicap for almost all the teachers in this slum is the amount of money they perceive in form of wage. In fact just three teachers out of the 25 that formed the basis of our research said to be satisfied with their salaries and in some cases the agreed amount of salaries were not paid on regular basis thus putting the teachers sometimes in extremely difficult situations. Rating in order of importance what teachers felt was a real handicap in private schools of Kibera; they mentioned firstly the poor infrastructures, followed by a lack of teaching aid including books and teaching aids, and finally irregular salary payments.

The assessment which was done in this research through questionnaires and interviews did not only depict a positive picture of private investment in Kibera. Indeed the amount of population living together in slum need enough educational institutions to ensure that the level of illiteracy gradually reduce, something which the government cannot claim to be able to do all alone. «The heart of the population of Kibera and other poor areas in Africa seem to be beating for private schools» and for this reason several points need to be reconsidered in order to render the quality of these schools of better standard. The commendable efforts deployed by the Kenyan Independent Schools Association (KISA) need to be revitalized through general, technical and logistic support. There is no doubt that the private sector in Kenya and we presume elsewhere in Africa too, is a key determinant factor in the global vision of expanding primary education.

Further while elaborating policies on Universal Primary Education, it would be wise enough for state leaders, educational stakeholders, international organisation, national and multilateral agencies to consider and involve private schools entrepreneurs' ideas in the general consensus for a better appraisal of the sets goals. Refuting the role played of the private sector in the millennium campaign for Universal Primary Education as advocated by many critics (Watkins, Lewin, Rose) thus give the false impression that nothing is happening on the continent as far the development of education is concerned.

Inextricably, the various factors which could be identified as the major gap in the private provision of education in Kibera in our research converged to the same conclusions by Tooley and Dixon: The private schools in Kibera are not regulated, they suffer from the absence of buildings and infrastructures and lastly they all face striking financial difficulties.

These three aspects could be ameliorated if the private schools in Africa were given the least of attention and interest from the above mentioned institutions and partners.

Finally, it is suggested that in the perspective of boosting Entrepreneurship in Africa especially in the field of education, a study of the regulation of private schools in Africa should be carried. Ayittey (2007) stated the importance of the investment environment in the developmental process of Africa. An environment which, according to him is shaped by various government legislations, policies (taxes, duties, and subsidies), institutions and attitudes. In a case where this environment is such that it fosters peoples' effort, it becomes a catalyst for development. Such an environment is described as «enabling» or «conducive» to productive effort. (Ayittey 2007:159)

The study of the regulation of private schools for low-income families in Andhra Pradesh, India undertaken by Dr Dixon in 2003 has been of tremendous help in the understanding and the development of this sector in India. By carrying such a similar study in Africa, it would enable a better appraisal of the private educational sector and shall henceforth establish the basis for future support educational entrepreneurs of Africa.

Finally, it is equally felt that associations such as the Kenyan Independent schools Association (KISA) are better placed to act as a regulatory board for all the private schools operating within their sphere of competency. Considering their familiarity and their expertise with the sector, they could actively foster the development of private schools in terms of quality if they were given just half of the support that is being given to government schools.

From the foregoing analysis we can assume with little fear of contradiction that the contribution of private schools entrepreneurs in East Africa in the overall campaign for Universal Primary Education is commendable and worthy of support. Be it in Kibera (Kenya), in Makoko (Nigeria) or in Mbouda (Cameroon), private schools do play acting roles in educating the increasing number of people and they much more preferred by the population than the government schools even in a context of Free Primary Education(FPE) across states of Africa.

Our wish is to see that this research continues it course for a better understanding of the private educational sector and its contribution to the development of Africa in general.

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34. Rose, Pauline, 2002. Is the non-state education sector serving the needs of the poor?: evidence from east and southern. In: `Making Services Work for Poor People', World Development Report (WDR), Oxford, 4-5 November 2002.

35. Rose,P & Adelabu,M (2007) Private Sector Contributions to Education for All in Nigeria in:Walford,G &Srivastava,P (2007) (Eds) Private schooling in developing countries (Didcot, Symposium Books).

36. Sach, J. (2008) Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, Allen Lane, Penguin, London. Chapter 10 Ending poverty Traps, pp.227-253

38. Srivastava, P & Walford, G (2007) (Ed) Private Schooling in Less Economically Developed Countries. Asian and African Perspectives. Oxford Studies in Comparative Education.

39. Ssekamwa,J & Lugumba,S (2002) A History of Education in East Africa. Uganda: Fountain Publishers.

40. The Probe Team, 1999. Public Report on Basic Education in India, Oxford and New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

41. Tooley,J. Dixon.P, and Olaniyan,O.(2005) Private and Public Schooling in Low-Income Areas of Lagos State, Nigeria: A Census and Comparative Survey. International Journal of Educational Research 43(3): 125-46

42. Tooley, J (2006) Backing the Wrong Horse: How Private Schools are Good for the Poor. The FREEMAN: Ideas on Liberty. May 2006

43. Tooley,J. (2006) Educating Amaretch: Private Schools for the Poor and the New Frontier for Investors, IFC/FT.

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Appendices

Appendix A- Letter of permission

Private investment in education seems to have been developing in many African countries especially in slums and remote areas as many private schools are now mushrooming for many reasons. As such, we are carrying out a study about Private education in West Africa with a case study of five private primary schools in Kenya.

We are asking you to kindly answer every question in this questionnaire as honestly as you can. The answers you provide will be used only for the purpose of this study and will be handled with the highest level of confidentiality. So do not make any mark that will reveal your identity or indicate that the responses are from you.

Please choose only one answer and explain it where required. Be brief as much as possible.

Appendix B- SCHOOL OWNER QUESTIONNAIRE

1- Name of school.................................................................................

2- Your name (this will be kept confidential) ...............................................

4- Your age .........................................................................................

5- When was school opened and registered for the first time?.........................................

6- What strategies did you use to attract parent and pupils in your school?.....................................................................................................................

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

7- How many students enrolled in your school the first year it got opened?..........................................................................................................

8- How many students are enrolled for this academic year? ............................................................................... ...................

12-Number of teachers in your school...........................................................

a) Minimum..........................................................................................................................................................................................

b) Maximum..........................................................................................................................................................................................

C) What is the average teacher's salary in your school? .................................................

16-1) If your answer is (b), please state how much you pay monthly ...................

What are the school fees? Please fill in the table (if monthly fill in the monthly amount, if paid by term please just fill in the term amount in Ksh:

Class level/ standard	Monthly fees	Or term fees
a. Pre-primary
b. Standard 1
c. Standard 2
d. Standard 3
e. Standard 4
f. Standard 5
g. Standard 6
h. Standard 7
i. Standard8
j. Form 1
k. Form 2
l. Form 3
m. Form 4

d) Examination fees ? e) Extracurricular activities ? f) Parents association fees ?

g) Computer classes ? h) Other (please specify)..............................................

18-1 - If yes, to which category of the following and approximately how much?

c) Others (Specify please) Amount...................................................

19- Do you receive any subsidy for the funding of your school (excluding Tuition)?

20-1 If Yes, could you please give us more details about the nature of these incentives? ............................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................................................

21- What factors geared your motivations to set up a school in this specific area?

22- Do you think the regulatory climate is conducive enough for investment in this field in Kenya?

Appendix C- PUPILS' QUESTIONNAIRE

1) Name of school ........................................................................................................

2) Class (Grade).......................................................................................

3) Name of pupil .....................................................................................

4) Age ..................................................................................................

6b) If yes how many do you have? ....................................................................

7b) if yes what does he do? .........................................................................

8b) If yes what does she do? ..........................................................................................

9) How much do you pay for your monthly school fees? .......................................

11) For how long have you been studying in this school (years)? ................................

12) Have you ever attended a public (government) school before? 1) Yes ? 2) No ?

13) If yes, please briefly tell us why you have chosen to continue in a private school

vi) Other ......................................................... (please specify)

15a. How many rooms does your family occupy in your home? ................................

15b. How many people live in your home? (Please provide the numbers including yourself)

Student satisfaction

16) How would you rate your class teacher's ability in their subjects that they teach you?

17) How would you describe your class teacher's punctuality for lessons (starts lessons on time)?

23) How would you describe the school facilities (toilets, library, drinking water, chairs, blackboards etc.,)?

24) What do you think of the school's extra-curricular activities (sports, games, dance, and music)?

Science 1 - Very good ? 2- Good ? 3- Average ? 4 -Poor ? Mathematics 1- Very good ? 2- Good 3- Average ? 4 -Poor ?

26-Does your school offers scholarships or any other financial assistance to students?

27) What will you like to do after leaving school? .....................................................

.......................................................................................................................................................

Appendix D- Teacher Questionnaire

1. What is your age? .................................................................

Subject	Do you teach this subject? (Tick for yes)	What is your highest qualification in each subject that you teach? (If none, write none)
English Language
Mathematics
Kiswahili
Social Studies
Science
Religious Studies
Social Ethics
Physics
Biology
Chemistry
Geography
History
Other (specify)

4. How many years have you worked in this school as a teacher? ............................

5. How many years in total have you been working as a teacher? .............................

6. What is your highest education level, not taking teachers' training into account. Please tick only one.

11. What is your monthly salary from teaching at this school (not including private teaching)?

14. Do you have a second job other than in this school? Please tick as many that apply.

15. Please tick one of the following to indicate your father's highest education attainment

16. Please tick one of the following to indicate your mother's highest educational attainment

17. If you have children of your own do they attend this school (i.e., the one you teach in)?

19. For your primary 6 class, on average, how many minutes per week do you spend on giving quizzes or tests to your class pupils? If none, write `0'..................

21. What is the total number of students in your class? .........................................

23. If the salary and other benefits in all school types were exactly the same, which type of school would you most prefer to teach in? (Please tick)

24. Which of the following facilities does your class have? Please tick the correct box.

School facility	Available in the classroom (1)	Unavailable, or not functioning (0)
Blackboards
Duster
Chalk
Desks
Fans
Tape recorders
Chairs/benches
Electric light
Class cupboard
Drinking water
Teacher's table and chairs

25. Do you do any multi-grade teaching (teach several classes/sections in the same room at the same time)?

26. Which of the following teaching aids do you have access to? Tick all that apply.

a) Teacher guides
b) Dictionaries
c) Reference books
d) Maps/globes/charts/flash cards
e) Science kit
f) Audio cassette player
g) Television

28. Which of the following best describes why you became a teacher? Tick only one box

a) I like to teach/like my subject/self fulfilment
b) Inspired by other teachers
c) Family pressure/others decision
d) Convenient timing
e) Respectable job/good social status
f) Permanent job which offers financial security
g) Good salary
h) No other secure job available
i) Not a high pressure job

	1 Very Satisfied	2 Satisfied	3 Dissatisfied	4 Very Dissatisfied
a) Salary
b) Amount of leave/holiday
c) Respect from the parents
d) Respect from the pupils
e) Respect from the management/head
f) Social status in the community
g) Work environment
h) Teacher training
i) Facilities (books, teaching aids etc)
j) Infrastructure (furniture, buildings etc)
k) Leadership from the management/headteacher

31. What are the three most important problems that you face as a teacher? Please rank the three problems from 1 to 3 where 1 is the most important problem.

32. Please indicate how often your headteacher/school owner/manager observes your lessons.

34. If your school offers you in-service training how often do you undertake this training?

Appendix E- INTERVIEW ON THE BUSINESS OF EDUCATION

Preamble: This interview focuses on the Business of education in Africa, with a case study of private schools in Kibera, Kenya.

I would like to draw your attention on the fact that we would like to record this interview, if you don't mind. The responses for this interview shall be analyzed and used specifically for the course of this study and shall be handed with high level of confidentiality.

Question 1: Could you please introduce yourself? i.e. your name, your qualifications and your profession..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Question 2: Could you give us some reasons that geared your motivations of setting up a private school in Kibera? In a nutshell what is the background of your initiative? ....................

.........................................................................................................................

Question 3: What type of difficulties did you encountered in the overall process? .................

Question 4: What measures have you taken for your schools to improve themselves? .............

..............................................................................................................................................

Question 5: Has the government Free Primary Education initiative of 2003 had an impact on pupil's enrolment in your school? .......................................................................................................................................................

.........................................................................................................................................................

Question 6: Is the regulatory environment of Kenya conducive enough for this type of business? ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Question 8: What do you have to tell critics who think you are out just for money and nothing but money? ...................................................................................................................

Question9: What are your future objectives with this project? ...................................................

Primary education and entrepreneurship in east Africa: a case study of private schools for the poor in Kibera(Kenya)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS