This study illustrates and analyzes the part which community self-help has played in the financing of education in Kenya. Particular attention is paid to the view that although such local communities tend to reduce short-term costs for governments, they limit, at the same time, the opportunities to develop new and wider strategies of educational development. The document begins with a historical survey of the self-help schools. It then considers the organization, financing, and control of education (since Kenyan independence) at the pre-first level, first-level, and second-level schools. Separate chapters consider the self-help factor at each of these three levels and include case studies of unaided schools at these different levels. (Author/DN)