St Kevin tops in Coast as private schools shine

Private primary schools, led by Saint Kevin Hill Academy Nyali, were among the top institutions in Mombasa County in this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education KCPE examination results released Wednesday.

Parents and former candidates at Saint Kevin, which also emerged the best school in Kenya last year, celebrated Wednesday with its director Kevin Nyongesa declaring that this year’s results were testimony to the institution’s high standards.

“We handle children professionally and have teachers who are dedicated in their work and act as friendly managers to all the pupils,” he said, adding that “discipline and hard work made us excel.”

Saint Kevin Hill Academy Primary had some of the best candidates, with Rhodah Engefu scoring 444 points and Nderitu Mark Mathai of the same institution scoring 436 marks.

Rhodah rushed to her former school after learning about her sterling performance.

“I knew I would excel in my final examinations,” she said and attributed this to hard work and special attention from her teachers and the school environment.

Nyali Primary School, a public school, also had impressive results with its best candidate Abdallah Hussein scoring 440 marks.

The second best candidate at Nyali Primary School was Charles Mordechai who scored 430 marks while the last candidate at the school had 293 marks.

Saint Kevin registered 24 candidates this year with Ahmed Hussein who was the lowest scoring 411 points. The school posted a mean score of 427.25, an improvement from last year when it posted a mean score of 420.09 from 22 candidates. In 2013, the school had a mean score of 422.

Saint Kevin dominated the list of the top 20 candidates in the county, where girls posted impressive results.

Other top schools in Mombasa were Light Academy with a 375 mean score from 17 candidates.

Light Academy’s best candidate Innocent Malomba Namwamba scored 410 marks and the last had 335 marks.

Private Busy Bee Academy in Tudor, Mombasa, also had some good results with its best candidate Natalie Gitari scoring 435 marks.

 Mary Joy Primary School in Bombolulu also did well, with Anne Ndudu and Lauryne Koki, the leading candidates, tying at  431 marks.

Report by Philip Mwakio, Mwangi Muraguri and Ishaq Jumbe