Pangani Girls High School has for the second year in a row produced the best performing student in the KCSE exams as traditional giant Alliance Boys bounced back.
This year, Pangani’s Otieno Irene Juliet emerged top while in 2017 it was Naomi Karimi.
Irene had 87.644 points while Naomi had 87.011.
Principal Florence Ngarai said hard work and discipline have been the key drivers that have put the school on the map.
Though by yesterday evening the school had not received all the results, Ms Ngarari was confident the institution had performed well.
“We are happy and so excited to produce the top student for two years now. We do not take this for granted,” Ngarari said.
She said Irene maintained top position since Form One and that she showed a lot of potential early in her academics.
“We are excited that she finally clinched the top position,” Ngarari said.
In Alliance Boys, principal William Mwangi celebrated the school’s return to “where it belongs”. “We are getting back to where we used to be and are challenging the rest to catch up with us,” Mr Mwangi said.
Remarkable improvement
The school posted 36 As, which he says was a remarkable improvement from last year when they recorded six As. “We targeted 50 As, but we remain on track,” he added.
Two of the top 20 students nationally are from the school. Out of the 64 boys occupying the top 100 positions nationally, 16 are from Alliance.
When Saturday Standard visited the schools, only a handful of teachers and the principals were present. ?
Pangani’s Ngarari said the good results were a reflection of the hard work both teachers and students had put in the whole year.
“Clinching first position is not easy, it’s out of hard work and diligence,” she said.
She said the mantra of the school is to ensure that all girls who pass through Pangani transit to university “and not just to transit but to do so with good quality grades”.
Pangani was the most sought after national school by KCPE pupils who want to join high school.
A total of 87,209 students picked Pangani Girls this year as their first choice. In total, 110,835 girls chose Pangani Girls, yet there were just 336 slots.
