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 11th 2009 urged Africans to do in order to foster
development on the continent.
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