Sell old schools and build better modern ones

By MUNGAI KIHANYA

The Sunday Nation

Nairobi,

13 June 2021

I have a dream that, one day, all children in Kenya will be provided the highest quality of education (better than what is available in the most expensive private schools) absolutely free of charge.

Is this just a pipe-dream? I believe that if we are willing to think outside the box, this is a realistic dream. Consider this: Nairobi School and Lenana School are two of the prestigious national high schools in Kenya. Both are located in some of the most expensive prime areas of the city of Nairobi.

Nairobi School sits on about 160 acres of land and Lenana on about 200 acres. The market price of vacant plots in the areas around these schools (Kyuna estate and Ngong Road, respectively) is about Sh150 million per acre.

So, each school is sitting on land worth between Sh20 billion to Sh30 billion. The combined value of the two is at least Sh50 billion! Now, suppose this land was sold to private developers, what could we do with all that money?

Each of the two schools have about 1,500 pupils. I have been a member of the boards of management of schools over the last ten years and, from this experience, I have learnt that these numbers are too high. They make it very difficult to manage a school. In my view, the ideal high school should have about 400 to 500 pupils.

With that in mind, the first step would be to split the two school into seven, each with slightly over 400 pupils. Such a school can comfortably fit on about 50 acres of land. This is enough space for learning and accommodation buildings, staff quarters, sports and recreational facilities and open gardens for relaxation.

The market value of land outside the city (around Machakos and Kajiado counties) is about one million shillings per acre. Thus, the total cost of 350 acres for the seven schools would be about Sh350M; but let us set aside Sh500M to take care of transaction costs.

Next, we build very good quality schools with highest standards of facilities – better than the best private institutions in Kenya! From my experience in school management, I estimate that about one million shillings per pupil would be more enough for this. In total, that comes to about Sh3 billion for the seven schools.

So, we would spend about Sh3.5B to replace the old, crowded and dilapidated schools with smaller, comfortable ones. What do we do with the remaining Sh46.5B? More on that next week.