It is a staggering sum for structures that serve no one: the British government has admitted to torching £325 million (approx. KES 56.8 billion) on schools that either failed or simply vanished.

Revealed through freedom of information requests, these "ghost schools" expose a policy disaster where political dogma trumped practical need, leaving existing classrooms to crumble while billions were poured into empty shells.

The Cost of Ideology

The data, originating from the UK's Department for Education (DfE), paints a grim picture of misallocated resources. Between 2014 and 2024, the Conservative government committed over £10 billion (approx. KES 1.75 trillion) to building new schools.

In stark contrast, only £6.8 billion was allocated to rebuilding existing schools, many of which are plagued by decaying concrete and leaking roofs. For the Kenyan taxpayer, who often sees development funds vanish into stalled projects, the pattern is eerily familiar: a preference for launching shiny new initiatives over maintaining the essential infrastructure already in place.

The "free schools" programme, launched in 2010 by then-Education Secretary Michael Gove, allowed groups to bid for funding to set up new schools independent of local authority control. While some, like the Michaela Community School in London, succeeded, the lack of oversight led to significant wastage.

• Total Waste: £325 million (KES 56.8 billion) spent on 67 schools that failed or never fully materialized.
• The Warning: The National Audit Office had previously warned that 50% of these new places would be surplus—schools built where no students were needed.
• The Backlog: While these funds were burned, England’s backlog of school repairs continued to mount.

Crumbling Foundations

The revelation has drawn sharp rebuke from current officials. A government source described the spending as "the worst excesses of Tory free schools dogma," noting that the prioritization of these projects was unforgivable given the state of the wider school estate.

Dozens of these institutions were absorbed by existing trusts or simply closed their doors due to a lack of demand. It serves as a potent case study in the dangers of centralized planning that ignores local realities.

As the UK grapples with this financial black hole, the lesson resonates globally: building new monuments is useless if the foundation is rotting.