ADvTECH Acquires Progressive GIS For P70M

Cavin Kanoko | Monday September 28, 2020 16:04

The school had a change of ownership in 2015 when ADvTECH schools acquired the school from its previous owner Craig Chow for P70 million. The acquisition of GIS by ADvTECH was the company’s first acquisition outside of South Africa and aligned with the group’s growth strategy of investing in leading and established school brands. After taking over the school the group started revamping and developing the school’s infrastructure into what it is today.

The managing director of the school, Horace Mpanza pointed out that the group is one of the biggest private education companies and thus the acquisition of GIS is a good investment by the company, which has benefitted both the school and the company. He said in the quest to provide quality education to their students they have developed systems that provide students with the platform to access world-class education.  He also said the school has benefitted a lot from being part of a big organisation as this allows them the opportunity to network with other schools in Kenya and South Africa.

“When COVID-19 hit and the country went into lockdown we did not stop the learning process because we already had systems in place that allowed to immediately migrate the learning process to our online platforms,” Mpanza said.

He added that students and parents were very supportive of the system thus they were able to extensively cover the academic syllabus, after the end of the lockdown.

When schools reopened students were allowed to chose between going to school and learning from home. He said the school is a place to benchmark for other private schools as it has a track record of producing the best students.

He pointed out that as a school they prioritise staff development to meet the level of education they aim to provide to their students. Mpanza said the school’s management has decided that for the next academic year they will not raise the school fees as a way to allow parents to be able to recover from the financial strain caused by COVID-19 induced lockdowns that have affected the country’s economy negatively.

He pointed out the decision has been well received by the parent body and the school promised that values and quality would be upheld despite the decision.