Jenny’s ‘Into Africa’ experience

Jenny Coetzee, managing director of Crawford International School in Nairobi, Kenya was the guest speaker at the Port Shepstone Rotary Club meeting last Thursday.

Mrs Coetzee shared her interesting journey – titled ‘Into Africa’ – towards building and establishing a private school in Tatu City, on a 5,000-acre piece of land earmarked to be ‘the next Sandton’.

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She explained that after a study had revealed that by 2020, there would be too many children and not enough schools, she was appointed to set up a school in Kenya.

Her career in education dates back to 1981, when she spent 12 years teaching at Grosvenor Boys’ High on the Bluff in Durban.

She moved to Grosvenor Girls’ from 1993 to 1998, before joining Crawford College, La Lucia in 1999 and being appointed general manager of KwaZulu-Natal Crawford Schools in 2016..

When Mrs Coetzee arrived in Nairobi, just nine months prior to the school’s scheduled opening, not a brick had been laid.

She admits she was a ‘little stressed’ but was determined to open the school in September, as planned.

This gave her the opportunity to be creative about the design of the school, an innovative step which later led to the school being nominated for an award.

Against all odds, the construction met deadline, and the doors of the state-of-the-art facility opened on September 11, 2018.

The school has already won two awards for academics and career development at the Great Place to School Competition.

The facility can accommodate 1 700 pupils, catering for children from kindergarden to high school.

“Looking back, I am glad I took on this project. It has forced me to be innovative and not to stress,” said Mrs Coetzee.

She added that she and her operations manager husband, Marcel, had fallen in love with Kenya and its people.

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