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Conferring Business Capacity to Young Minds.

This week, The African Executive talks to Maggie Kamau Biruri, Regional Director of International Child Resource Institute- Africa, situated on Hazina Towers in Nairobi. She explains the missing link in many an education system in Africa, using Kenya as a case in point.

A E. Why do you call your organization “Project Baobab”?

Maggie: In Africa, the Baobab tree is known as the “tree of life” because it is self-sustaining through periods of drought, endures the weight of its fair-reaching branches, and provides shelter for creatures, great and small. The baobab tree is an apt symbol for Project Baobab (PB), as it prepares Kenyan youth to be equally strong and self-sustaining through entrepreneurship.

AE: Please give your assessment of the Kenyan education environment

Maggie: The Kenyan education system offers an exam-centric approach to learning. Children have to endure long hours of rigorous schooling, cramming and memorization. Success is defined by attainment of white color jobs. The more westernized one is, the more educated he is perceived to be. Accessibility to and success in education are purely based on socio-economic factors. The well to do attend well-funded and well-equipped institutions while the poor attend poorly funded and under-equipped schools.

Besides, the country has a total of six public universities and 16 private universities. The capacity of the higher education sector is still limited and accommodates only 7.5 percent of students graduating from secondary schools, according to World Bank figures. Access to higher education in Kenya is thus extremely competitive and expensive, consistently leaving out the poor.

AE: What unique thing does PB offer in light of the mentioned scenario?

Maggie: PB provides appropriate education. This takes into consideration the social, economic, cultural and political realities of a student hence providing relevant skills and tools that translate those realities into everyday life. It allows teachers and students to socially construct their own realities and develop their own definitions of what learning is, thereby identifying their local problems and finding their own sustainable local solutions.

PB also provides entrepreneurial and education grants to young people through a specialized curriculum taught in few public secondary schools. PB has developed these programs in rural and poor urban schools although they have been extended to women communities such as Lang’ata Women’s Prison.

AE: Why are you centered in government schools only?

Maggie: We are currently working in government schools by default. We have not ruled out private schools. In fact one of our newest projects is in an informal school in the slums.

AE: What criteria guides your selection of participating schools?

Maggie: We select schools by invitation by our partners who are already involved in some work there. Sometimes it is by word of mouth. We are a very organic organization that rolls with the punches since we are small and only five years old.

AE: Briefly describe the basic components in your programme

Maggie: Our course has four main program components: Life Skills; Entrepreneurial Skills; Start-up Funding and Tracking and Mentoring. The Life Skills course teaches students self-esteem and confidence. This is done through topics such as: Confidence Building; Goal Setting and Accomplishment; Gender Empowerment; Communication and Networking; Decision –Making and Time Management; Democracy and Human Rights; HIV/Aids; Stress Management; Basic Leadership Skills and Conflict Management; Group Dynamics and Teamwork.

The Entrepreneurial Skills course is taught in the fourth year of secondary school. Students learn job readiness, business planning, development skills and are encouraged to explore options for economic independence. The course aims at furnishing students with theoretical and practical knowledge to help them appreciate the importance of self-employment; identifying prospective business opportunities; preparing a business plan, setting up and managing a business enterprise.

AE: Why do you reserve the Entrepreneurial Skills course for the fourth year?

Maggie: The first year is strictly for life skills. We realized that the students had neither received any training in life skills nor had access to vital information such as HIV/AIDS and self-esteem. The entrepreneurship course is taught as they are getting ready to leave school so that they can have the information that will allow them to write a business plan and provide them with tools to help them start their small businesses.

AE: Do you follow up your students after school?

Maggie: Upon graduation, students submit business plans to a committee from the local business community, PB staff and partners. The most promising enterprises are recommended for start-up funding from PB. Each year 30 percent of the trainees with outstanding business plans receive grants of USD 100 each. Those funded are monitored and mentored by trackers.

AE: What happens to the 70 percent?

Maggie: Since we are nonprofit, we can not afford to give everybody grants. Also, it is important to teach them about competition. Some of the business plans are not usually that good thus funding them would be a waste of money. We evaluate our success, not just based on the grantees, but on the training. Some of the trainees who were not funded have gone ahead and opened their own small businesses based on the training received.

AE: Cite some of the feedback you have received from your clients

Maggie: So far, about 50 percent of the grantees are running businesses with good to marginal success. However, about 20 percent of the businesses are not operating. Over half of the students state that the Life-Skills topics are completely relevant in their day-to-day lives. Even the students who do not receive the start-up grants feel that the training is worth their time. Students say that the time allocated for the training is not enough.

Teachers involved in the program also laud it. The skills have prompted some to engage in business, open consultancy firms and pursue degree courses in entrepreneurship. They have a sense of “self-fulfillment” that is partly derived from better interaction with their students and are motivated to widen their knowledge and skills beyond the Teacher Service Commission (TSC).

AE: How many people have benefited from your program since inception?

Maggie: PB has Taught 323 young women through Life Skills and/or Entrepreneurial Skills courses since 2001. It has funded more than 133 new business ventures, at least half of which remain operational. It compensates all participating schools where it has established its curriculum and accords appropriate stipends to participating teachers.

AE: What challenges face PB?

Maggie: PB faces an uphill task in a society that has been socialized to despise blue color jobs and self-employment. In addition, the current education program is too ‘demanding’ hence PB students have little time to devote to the program. It is sometimes difficult and expensive to track the grantees. PB teachers are members of the TSC hence they are sometimes transferred to other schools.

AE: TSC teachers? Why not target teachers in the private sector who are not assured of pay but work equally hard?
Maggie: You are right, working with non-TSC teachers would be great, but since we have been working in government schools, it has had to be TSC teachers. As we expand to harambee and informal schools, we will work with the disadvantaged teachers.

AE: Doesn’t your program interfere with the normal curriculum in the participating schools?

Maggie: When we work in schools, our program is considered extra curriculum. It is not carried out during regular school hours. However, the structure of the 8-4-4 system is problematic and the gruesome curriculum does not provide enough time for students to concentrate in the program

AE: The Kenyan education system (as you described) involves long hours of school. Doesn’t your program increase this burden?

Maggie: It probably does, but since we do a year long training for each course, the pressure is not too much. I talked about the challenges we face and one of them was the fact that the students have a rigorous curriculum, especially during the final year of high school.

AE: What type of exams do you give your students?

Maggie: There are no exams. Students are assessed throughout the course and are not required to do an exam. The only written requirement is the business plan which is done at the end of the entrepreneurship course. Students are given assignments.

AE: What should be done to ensure that all grantees run successful businesses?

Maggie: Capacity building is important and would help them gain important skills. Also, many of them have heard horror stories about micro-loans and are afraid of taking loans to expand their businesses. This year, we are partnering with Technoserve to expand our project and have included a business advisor component to the program who will work and mentor the new businesses.

AE: What is Project Baobab doing to be self sustaining?

Maggie: Since we are a very young organization, we have not yet developed self-sustaining strategies. However, they are unfolding organically. For example, Technoserve (a US Based NGO) has just partnered with us to expand our programs to five schools and five communities. We are also refining our curriculum to scale up our programs to other sites. We have talked about starting a revolving fund as well as developing a mentoring component where our trained grantees can mentor and support the new trainees.

AE: Why do you focus on the girl child and woman?

Maggie: While, we do not have a mandate to work with women only, we feel that there is a greater need for young women to get opportunities to start their own businesses. Most of the girls we train come from very low income backgrounds and their chances of going to college are slim. These women have no opportunities to move to get employment anywhere. While it is hard for the men, we find that it is harder for women. However, there is an increasing demand for the program to incorporate men. We will include some men in this year’s program.AE: What are you doing to have this course replicated in most Kenya schools?Maggie: We are still refining our curriculum and using the lessons learnt to improve it. With five additional sites, we are organically expanding and believe that in a few years, we should be able to expand to other regions in Kenya.

By Josephat Juma African Executive Writer