Coast national schools shine, but not as brightly as their peers elsewhere

Fatma Mohamed Ismael [centre] is congratulated by fellow students after scoring 82 points at Abu Hureira Academy in Mombasa. The School has a mean grade of 9.436 with 55 students. There are 11 A--s and 8A--Minuses. 4th March 2015. [PHOTO: OMONDI ONYANGO/STANDARD]

MOMBASA: Newly-elevated national secondary schools in Coast region posted improved results, but their performance in last year's Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations was still below most schools in the same category across the country.

Candidates from top schools in the region, however, performed quite impressively.

Maulid Alfan Kitoweo of Kenyatta National School emerged the top KCSE candidate in Taita-Taveta County with a mean grade of A (84 points). H Runya and A Mwazighe from Kenyatta, Duncan Mwenda and Iha Milla both from Dr Aggrey High School Wundanyi town followed with grade A (82 points).

Kenyatta High School in Mwatate, one of the new national schools in Taita Taveta County posted a mean grade of 8.1307 up from 7.52 the previous year. In Mombasa, Naseem Faiz Hyder of Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Secondary School also scored an A grade(84 points) while Miran Alwy Kamal from the same school also scored an A (83 points).

Despite their improved performance, the new national schools still did not measure up to their private counterparts in key counties like Mombasa and Kilifi.

The best schools in the region, according to results received by The Standard are Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al–Nahyan, Light Academy and Aga Khan High School in Mombasa, which posted the best results in terms of mean score and actual grades. Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a mixed school, enrolled 150 students and 17 of them scored plain As. The lowest was a C+. The school had a mean score of 10.12.

Light Academy, situated in Nyali, Mombasa, had a mean score of 9.96 in last year's examinations, an improvement from 2003 when it scored 9.62.

Aga Khan High School in Mombasa put up a good show when it managed 43 As with a mean score of 9.51. The school obtained 21 As, 22 A-minuses, 38 B-pluses, 23 B and 21 B-minuses.

Dr Aggrey High School, although not a national school, emerged second in last year's KCSE in the county, while in 2013 it was in position three. The boys’ school posted a mean score of 7.4468 from last year's results up from 7.09 in 2013.

Murray Girls was ranked third with a mean score of 7.128 while Bura National School was ranked position four with a mean grade of 6.5 in last year's examinations. Its top candidate has a mean grade of B+.

Education officials interviewed yesterday said there was a slight improvement in last year's KCSE results.

"We are currently doing examination analysis and we will give you the correct position of the county performance once we are through," said the County Director of Education Jonathan Nyamai.

Shimo la Tewa, one of the two national schools in Mombasa County, had 164 candidates and posted a mean score of 7.929. Two candidates scored plain A, 12 had A-, 21 B+ while 20 got B. There were 33 candidates with B- and 31 with C+. Twenty six scored C plain, 10 scored C- while one candidate had D+. Three candidates scored grade X because they did not sit the examinations.

Matuga Girls High School topped Kwale County with a mean score of 7.2 up from 6.8 in 2013. National schools in Kwale County improved slightly in last year's KCSE examinations compared to the previous year. Kwale boys High School posted a mean score of 7.1 last year, an improvement from 6.9 in 2013.

Matuga Girls High School, the second national school in Kwale topped the county with a mean score of 7.2 last year up from 6.8 in 2013. It had 151 candidates last year but none scored grade A. Two candidates scored A- while 98 passed with grade C and above.

Ribe Boys, a national high school in Kilifi County, recorded an improvement index of 0.05475 in last year's KCSE.

According to the principal Raphael Diwani, the school produced six students with grade A- and nine with B+ enabling it to record a mean score of 7.11875 up from the previous year's score of 7.064.

Mr Diwani said another 15 students scored B, 34 B-, 33 C+, 39 C, 17 C, 25 D+ and 2 D. The school had 160 candidates.

-Stories by Renson Mnyamwezi, Tobias Chanji, Joseph Masha and Mwangi Muraguri