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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