A few years ago, the children of the wealthy in Eldoret and neighbouring regions flew to Nairobi or abroad to study in elite schools.
There were few to no top-tier schools that prepared children for life as global citizens, offered English cuisines, international curriculum, and extra-curricular activities such as robotics and golf, which the wealthy preferred.
Now there are about 10 elite schools, some charging upwards of Sh500,000 a year, and admitting hundreds of children. Others are expanding as demand grows.
A majority of the learners in these schools, mostly located at the upmarket estates of Elgon View and West Indies, are children of doctors, wealthy farmers, and the political class.
Harton Range Academy in Eldoret, Kenya. FILE PHOTO |POOL
Others are expatriates; Asians, Chinese and children of missionaries from Europe and the US working in the region.
There is Nova Pioneer, Harton Range Academy, Etham International School, Aga Khan Nursery School, Gulab Lochab Academy, and Greenvale School Eldoret, among others.
In these schools, pupils are taught to play golf, table tennis, and lawn tennis, master the art of music, and learn robotics, a fun way to introduce them to programming, subjects that were unheard of in the region.
Their menus have options; English or African cuisine.
Harton Range Academy on the Old Nairobi Road in Eldoret is one of the institutions that offer the British Cambridge curriculum from Year one up to Year nine. Years ago, where the school sits, were farmhouses.
Etham International School, Eldoret. FILE PHOTO | STANLEY KIMUGE | NMG
Dr Miten Lodhia, the founder of the school, says he saw a huge gap in the market.
“I remember struggling to get a good school for my son. I had the option to either transfer him to Nairobi or abroad but I decided to set up a school. Then I started getting a lot of pressure from parents to slowly expand it,” he says.
The school opened its doors in September 2019.
When it started, it had 52 learners to Year 4 but now its population has grown to about 500 and counting.
“The parents prefer international schools because you find the same content is taught around the world,” says Ronald Gasper, the school’s head teacher.
What also draws parents, including Ugandans, is digital learning.
“The approach enables a child to be innovative. Some of the learners commute daily from Kapsabet and Iten. I believe that this is due to the lack of boarding facilities. We also get a lot of inquiries from parents from neighbouring counties and even Nairobi,” Mr Gasper says.
Already, plans are afoot to set up another school on an eight-acre land in Ilula on the outskirts of Eldoret to accommodate more learners. The 120-bed boarding school will be opened by next January. It will accommodate 900 learners.
Etham International School is another elite school that stands on three acres located in upper Elgon View. It offers Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) and British IGCSE Pearson/ Edexcel International curriculum. Currently, the school has 130 students.
The institution was the brainchild of a 23-member group of medical doctors working in various Eldoret hospitals. They had struggled to find “good schools” for their children, that provided a holistic approach.
“That time, there were a lot of cases of indiscipline and school burning, and parents were concerned. They decided to come together and build a school that provides values to children,” says Peter Waiganjo, the school’s head teacher.
He notes that the school is entrenched in Christian principles and values that are universally accepted in all faiths such as honesty, diligence, and punctuality.
“Other than normal teaching, we inculcate these values because we saw some missing in our current education system. Our approach is child-oriented and content-oriented not exam-oriented so that the issue of exam cheating doesn’t arise,” explains Mr Waiganjo.
At the institution, a learner has the option to proceed up to Year 13 where they undertake a two-year professional course like engineering and medicine.
“The starting was not easy like any other venture since most of the learners were mainly children of the shareholders. But slowly, through referrals, we had more learners,” he says.
At Aga Khan Nursery School in Eldoret, the learners are multi-racial and some come from Congo, Burundi, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Jacqueline Odanga, the school's head teacher says they offer a Competency-Based Curriculum and borrow from its sister international schools in Kisumu, Nairobi, and Mombasa.
A section of Aga Khan Nursery School in Eldoret, Kenya. FILE PHOTO | STANLEY KIMUGE | NMG
“When a child leaves here, he or she is an all-rounded 21st-century global citizen. Our learners are known to exhibit high levels of confidence, better communicators, problem-solvers, and critical thinkers,” says Ms Odanga.
At any given year, there are between 160 and 180 learners between the ages of two and six years old. The learners are involved in community service, and farm trips to inculcate virtues such as patience and contentment.
They also provide inclusion, she notes, as they have special needs tutors who take care of special needs children.
Gulab Lochab Academy, another school, also offers the British curriculum and is affiliated with British Pearson IGCSE/ Edexcel international which oversees its examination and learning materials.
It is one of the oldest elite schools that sits on four-acre land. It was started in 1994. Back then, it started with 150 learners. Today, it has over 500 learners of different nationalities from Year One to Year 11.
Antonio De Asia, the school principal standing in front of the Gulab Lochab Academy school premises. FILE PHOTO | STANLEY KIMUGE | NMG
Another new building is being put up to host more learners. With the expansion, they will be able to accommodate over 600 learners, says Antonio De Asia, the current school’s principal.
Mr De Asia says the school hopes to reclaim its former glory and keep up with the competition.
“We have received a lot of inquiries from parents who want to bring their children to this school. With the hitches in the current education system, more parents have developed an interest in international schools,” he says.
Greenvale School Eldoret is also located on Old Nairobi Road, adjacent to the suburbs of Elgon View.
Norah Ferej, the school director says it was founded in 2006 after they conducted a survey and found that there was a gap as parents sought facilities that offered quality education.
“We did an informal survey in the region, there were those who wanted us to introduce the British curriculum and others 8-4-4. We settled on 8-4-4 because the majority were for 8-4-4 and we did not want to start an international curriculum and not get learners,” she says.
It started with 109 students and it has a population of 1,100. Learners are from Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Elgeyo Marakwet, and Trans Nzoia. Others are from Nairobi, Nakuru, Lodwar, Kericho, and neighbouring countries.
Competitive globally
Nova Pioneer Eldoret campus is the latest entrant. It opened its doors on January 2020 with its first batch of Form 1 class. And on its fourth year of operation, the school now has Form 1 to Form 4, and recently launched Grade 7-Junior Secondary School classes across both the boys' and girls' boarding facility.
Located about five kilometres from Eldoret town, it sits on 20 acres of land.
Christopher Khaemba, the director and co-founder of the Nova Pioneer Schools, said that the Eldoret campus was established, (in addition to the Tatu City - Kiambu Campuses) to allow more families to access the local curriculum delivered to students with the future in mind, enabling more Kenyan students to be competitive globally.
“The institution was established to prepare learners to be 21st-century innovators and leaders. We use Singapore Maths to teach,” Mr Khaemba says.
“Our laboratories and maker spaces allow students to experiment with their own inventions, and graduates will emerge fluent in the innovation skills that they’ll need to thrive in modern careers,” he adds.
When they launched three years ago, they had 50 students but when Covid-19 disrupted learning and Nova started offering virtual learning, it attracted more learners. Today, there are over 450 learners at the institution.
The fees range between Sh154,000 and Sh165,000 per term. Nova Pioneer Eldoret is part of the six campuses in Kenya and 10 in South Africa. In Eldoret, it was built in partnership with the Local Authorities Pensions Trust (Laptrust) for Sh1.6 billion.
“Our student population represents families from Nakuru, Nyanza, Rift Valley, Nairobi, Marsabit, Kisumu and Kakamega. We have recently noticed a steady increase in families from Uganda joining our diverse community and hope that we can increase the diversity of our school,” says Mr Khaemba.
The Greenvale School in Eldoret. FILE PHOTO | POOL
Mr Gasper seeks to debunk the notion that learners in elite schools are pampered compared to their counterparts in other public schools.
“We take them on trips to farms where they learn how to keep livestock, till farms, we teach them about the realities of life. We also take them to children's homes to appreciate what they have,” he says, adding, “We maintain the social life they are used to by making the school homely so that they don’t miss home while at school.”
