ADvTECH’s Makini Schools Responds To Mismanagement Allegations From Parents As Baseless

Kenya Insights highlighted the plight of parents who’re frustrated by the management of the school. As it is our mandate to inform the public, we did what we had to do. Martin Sharman, the school’s MD reached out to the editorial team in protest that some of the issues raised by the parents organization had heavy inaccuracies, they’ve termed parents’ concerns that we raised as defamatory.

We had raised concerns by the parents that ADvTECH, the company running Makini and Crawford Schools stood a tough position and didn’t give parents a conducive environment to air and reach an amicable position to level their plight.

“Factual inaccuracies affect many stakeholders: over 3,500 children and their families and over 600 employees – in already difficult times. We should therefore always consider public good and truth and not take lightly the spread inaccuracies/unverified information that may have vast negative effects on the lives of many at the cost of an opinion by a few based on unknown motives.” Reads part of the reply from the school’s management to Kenya Insights.

“We are a transparent group of schools, open to dialogue.” The MD said in part.

The MD reiterated that ADvTECH as a leading private education provider, has maintained a long reputation of excellence in the field with their schools outperforming rest of schools. Despite dwindling numbers, the MD insists that the JSE-Listed firm has been affirmative in listing their financial records with Johannesburg Stock Exchange and stakeholders.

Makini also dismisses the accusations that the transfer from Scholes to ADvTECH was kept a secret by insisting that it was communicated prior after it became apparent that Scholes couldn’t run the school effectively.

The school further defends their communication director, Katya Nyangi from unprofessionalism accusations saying she’s well qualified and a graduate with other professional qualifications. “She worked in banking, journalism, has compiled and edited content for various publications, and was also a trained and certified teacher of English for over 5 years. Katya has been involved with Makini since June 2015.” Says the MD.

Mr. Sharman doesn’t refute the fact that as an MD, he’s running the school from South Africa, in response he says , “In reference to the management structure, Makini Schools has an on the ground management team. ADvTECH group oversees the operations of over 100 schools and cannot feasibly be physically present at all the schools. 21st Century technologies as used in all multi­ national companies enables cooperation and coordination of operations across all the schools. It is unfortunate that travel is not possible during this pandemic, given that most countries’ borders remain closed – this is, naturally a temporary situation. However, the management team at ADvTECH do make frequent physical visits to the schools under normal circumstances and any time a particular need requires the same.”

Mr. Sharman refutes the claims that ADvTECH is a pyramid scheme saying the JSE-Listed firm has a record of over 10 years in the private education industry with an excellent track record.

Makini Schools insists that the e-learning program is of high quality with over 2,500 learners excited with the progress. However, the parents representative Nixon Bugo, doesn’t have kind words for the arrangement, “Indeed, the school management has proceeded to unlawfully bill the parents for Term 2, 2020 much as the Ministry of Education has not promulgated the calendar dates for Term 2. This exhibits lack of sincerity, trust and truthfulness on their part,” read the letter from the PTA committee.

In a communication to the parents on May 20, the institution asked the parents to pay the money while insisting the e-learning that it has been providing to learners was “not free and cannot reasonably be expected to be.”

The PTA committee urged parents to stick to an earlier agreement that had been arrived on May 13 indicating the e-learning was free and that they were not expected to pay Term Two fees.

On its side, the administration argued the parents were not required to pay for installation of the e-learning as its costs had been catered for but were required to pay the fee for the administration to pay its staff.

“To date we have been able to continue paying the teachers in full. Our ability to keep doing so if parents withhold fees will be seriously undermined and we urge you not to take the route of encouraging parents to do so,” said the school administration.

This is not the first time Makini Schools management and the parents are having a public spat. Last year, the deteriorating relations between the two entities have gave a rise to accusations and counter-accusations as each side defended their position, with the managers threatening to seek legal redress.

The parents accused the new owners of putting profit first and running down the school, which, they claimed, the school has seen a number of students withdrawing. A once top level school in Kenya, has been hit with endless controversies.

The raging dispute escalated to Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha, with parents asking him to intervene and save the institution.

“We write to you as the PTA of Makini School that represents over 1,000 parents and over 1,700 students to seek an appointment with you to address serious challenges that the school is facing.

As you may be aware, in late 2017 the then owners of the school entered into a secret financial deal that sold Makini School to a foreign private entity firm known as the Schole,” the PTA says in a letter to the CS.

“Our interaction with the new management in the last one year and our preliminary research about this firm shows that the management is not only new in the education business but lacks capacity and the know-how and requisite skills to run a school of Makini’s calibre. Fundamentally, the management’s approach to education matters is at discrepancy with the Kenya’s education framework.”

The PTA said that efforts to engage the management in dialogue to resolve the issue had failed after the managers snubbed them.