St Vincent Butende Secondary Sets to Upset Academic Giants in the Region

St Vincent Butende Secondary School in Mumias West sub-county, Kakamega County has put elaborate measures aimed at upsetting the perennial academic giants in the region.

Under the leadership of the soft spoken Principal Mr Benson Musasia, Butende Secondary has been building on success so far achieved and improving on areas of weakness.

Speaking to this writer, Mr Musasia avers that, “Hard work is the secret to the school success. One has to obey hard work.”

Barely seven months at the school, Mr Musasia has introduced varied measures all aimed at assessing the students weakness, among them:

a)One on one engagements with students.

b) Special sessions with candidates twice every week.

c) Teaching staff motivation.

d)Exposure to more external exams like the ongoing post mock examination which will enable them gauge individual candidates’ capabilities.

“You can never realise production in a hostile environment, I have taken it upon myself to see to it that every stakeholder is at peace in this institution for proper results,” Mr Musasia says.

He adds, “When I came in, we had dilapidated classrooms and so far we have worked on the floors of six classes with high end terrazzo and students are now comfortable.”

The community has been very supportive and it has made the work easier, save for a few challenges like fee payments.

Asked about his vision while still the principal, Mr Musasia says that he intends to produce brilliant, disciplined and God fearing students.

“I have a history of posting impressive results and Butende being a new station to me I am determined to upset other academic giants around. We have set a mean target which must be met and my teachers know what we want and we are really working towards that,” he says.

Late last term, the school conducted and elected students’ council that was transparent as it imitated the general election.

“General elections have always been a contentious issue in the country and we chose to start preparing the electorates of tomorrow on the benefits of voting and democracy,” he points out.

He further notes they had all stakeholders for the election including returning officers, presiding officers, clerks and electorates ranging from the elderly, heavily pregnant, the disabled among many others and they believe that the learners learnt something from it.

In a video that has since gone viral, the school has been accredited for carrying out an impressive election and stakeholders urged other schools around to copy from St Vincent Butende Secondary in preparation of the tomorrow’s electorates.

The school had 12 candidates getting minimum university entry grade of C+ and above and they expect the number to go up to 30 in the forthcoming 2023 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).

The Principal further notes that Mumias West Member of Parliament Hon. Johnson Manya Naicca has a special interest for the school and his support has been so immense.

The MP has done so much for the school within a short time and as a school they are grateful to have him.

“When I came in as the head of the institution a few months ago, we had no toilets for boys and when I reached out to the area MP, he acted promptly and put up something. He is currently working on the drainable and eight-door toilets and a bathroom for girls,” he says.

The students from the school overwhelmingly receive bursary funds from the NG-CDF kitty which has helped a number of them to stay in school.

“Being a sub-county school, we are supposed to have three streams per class and at the moment the school has nine streams. The MP has promised to work on the deficit of the three streams to ease congestion,” he notes.

Musasia avers that he has never seen a leader who is so passionate about the interests of his people like Mheshimiwa Naicca.

“As all this is happening, we have never met but his support towards St Vincent Butende is so pronounced and I am glad to be associated with him,” points Mr Musasia.

Worth noting is that Naicca’s top priority to the people of Mumias West is to improve education standards of schools and he has done it so well.