This archive report was first published on 27 August 2019.
Published on August 27, 2019, by Ouma Wanzala, a Nation journalist, highlighted the surge in the number of elite schools in Kenya.
According to Mr. Christopher Khaemba, a former Alliance High School principal and co-founder of Nova Pioneer Schools, congestion and overstretched facilities in public schools are forcing parents to seek schools with a more conducive learning environment for their children.
Mr. Khaemba noted that the middle-class is taking their children to private schools, creating opportunities for investors. He emphasized the need for public-private partnerships in setting up schools.
He added that due to congestion in public schools, certain values are compromised since teachers have to deal with huge student numbers.
As a result, Nova Pioneer plans to establish at least 10 primary and secondary schools by 2022. The institution, which will admit both boys and girls, is expected to admit its first batch of students in January 2020.
Early this year, the 40-year-old Riara Group of Schools was acquired by Sweden's largest private school chain, Actus Education Holdings. This came a year after UK-based investor Scholé Limited and ADvTECH acquired the 40-year-old Makini School.
Other elite schools in Kenya include the 1,700 capacity Crawford International School, which offers the Cambridge syllabus, and the Dubai-based GEMS Cambridge International School, which closed its Karen campus and moved to its newly acquired Hillcrest International Schools campus.
The elite schools charge as much as Sh800,000 per term, prompting the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion to call on the government to channel its resources to public schools.
