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:
- Registration certificate from the Ministry of Education;
- Lease agreement of land plus buildings( any number);
- Land;
- Basic school equipment/furniture;
- Qualified administrative and teaching staff.
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)
And on a quite different perspective,
«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:
«There is no concrete
policy to regulate the non public sector»
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.
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