Problems Faced By Private Schools In The Slum And Academic Perfomance In Selected Areas Of Kibera Slum, Nairobi Distric Kenya

ABSTRACT

The Oxfam Education Report published in 2000 is typical. While the

author acknowledges the existence of high-quality private providers,

he contends that these are elite, well-resourced schools that are

inaccessible to the poor. As far as private schools for the poor are

concerned, these are of “inferior quality”; indeed, they “offer a lowquality

service” that is so bad it will “restrict children’s future

opportunities.” This claim of low-quality private provision for the poor

has also been taken up by British prime minister Tony Blair’s

Commission for Africa, which recently reported that although “Nonstate

sectors have historically provided much education in Africa,”

many of these private schools “aiming at those [families] who cannot

afford the fees common in good public schools are without adequate

public regulation and are of a low quality.”

this study was designed to examine the problems faced by private

schools in the slum and academic performance in selected areas of

Kibera slum, Nairobi district Kenya. Data were collected from 100pupils enrolled in private School named New Faith Nursery and Primary School (n=50). And Neema nursery and primary school (n=50)  situated in Gatwekera village, in the heart of Nairobi’s Kibera slum.

The study also covered one public school in order to give a clear difference between the public and private school. This was done during the month of April 2008 using a self-report questionnaire. Results indicated that Slums are usually characterized by urban decay, high rates of poverty, and unemployment. They are commonly seen as ~breeding grounds~T for social problems such as crime, drug addiction, alcoholism, high rates of mental illness, and suicide. This could therefore affect the learning environment for the pupils especially because of high rate of disease infection. Kibera private schools for the poor have been found to be in large numbers, they are oftenly hidden from view. In the slums, a typical private school would be in a converted house, in a small alleyway behind bustling and noisy streets, or above a shop.