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))
And
«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 socioeconomic 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).
And:
«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)
And:
«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.
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