Why Nakuru Girls walks with head high

Celebrations marked the new term at Nakuru Girls’ High School following brilliant results in the 2019 national examinations.

More than 800 students, teachers and board members converged at the school a day after opening to hold the first ceremony to celebrate what they termed as sterling results.

The school posted a mean grade of 9.52, a leap from 2018 where the school had a mean of 8.0.

“We had to open the school with celebrations because the improvement is huge, a great milestone. For the first time, the school emerged among the top 20 schools in the country,” Ms Rose Menjo, the school principal said.

Last year, the school registered 234 candidates who managed to break the record in years, a move that saw a neighbouring hotel give the students cake to celebrate the occasion.

Cake surprise

“We are celebrating a record which was last broken in 2011, nine years down the line, marking a major leap in the school. The win, is not only for the school, Sarova Woodlands also surprised us with a cake,” she added.

The school’s board chair Symon Mahungu said the results were an assurance that the school was on good path. “It is a new dawn, the results will inspire the school to rise again and claim its glory,” he said.

This year, we are targeting a mean of 10.5 to be able to compete with other academic giants in the region,” Prof Mahungu said.

The school was part of Nakuru High School and for 70 years served as the only mixed national school.

“Since 2006, the school has been a girls-only institution, competing favourably with the brother institution but the 2019 results have marked a new start with the girls breaking the ceiling,” Mahungu added. Peris Anyango, a student said the results came as a surprise. “We have been trying to break the record for long and we have done it. It is a new beginning for us.”

Nakuru High School last year began the process of splitting its facilities to create two separate institutions for boys and girls. 

The school started in 1927 when it was a whites-only school and among the few prestigious schools in Nakuru County.

Before the school was split in a bid to improve the quality of education, it was among national schools with largest number of students.