St. Peter’s Mwiruti Girls High School in Bumula Sub-county, Bungoma County, has roared back into the academic limelight by posting a very impressive performance in the 2024 KCSE examination, thanks to measures put in place by the soft-spoken Principal, Mrs Mildred Opwora.
Located in Sibembe area, 200 metres, off Mumias-Bungoma Road, the school recorded a mean score of 6.317 with a positive deviation of 0.809.
According to Mrs Opwora, they expected to post impressive results following the level of preparedness they put in on the candidates.
A total of 26 candidates scored above the minimum university entry grade of C+ and above with the best candidates scoring B (plain).
Mrs Opwora who has been at the school for close to four years has done so much for the school in terms of structural development, discipline, motivation of teachers and students’ welfare.
“We all understand that in any hostile environment, there can’t be production. I had to put everything right to ensure that the environment around the school becomes conducive both to students and the teachers,” Mrs Opwora said.
Early syllabus coverage, rigorous revision programmes, exposure to more internal and external exams, dedicated teamwork, discipline and super support from the stakeholders, and parents are just but among the measures that have made the school stand out.
According to the Principal, 97 per cent of the girls come from the locality and a majority of them have low entry behaviours but the desire to learn and the urge to change the situation at their homes motivates them to work even more.
“Our partnership with a renowned student mentor, ‘CHAMPIONS’ by Mr Paul Wanyonyi has also made us stand out in academics,” she said.
She added, “Mr Wanyonyi always visits us to have a session with the girls, talks, motivates and even challenges the girls and this made them understand the purpose of being in school.”
The clustering of students has also done the school well as they have the sharpshooter, the average group and the tail with every cadre assigned to teachers to handle the individual cases and this brings out competition within every cadre in school.
It is noted that when a student from sharpshooters drops, she’s taken to an average class and those in the tail cadre are also promoted if they improve. This has really helped the school stabilise in performance even more.
With a target already set at 6.945 for 2025, the school is already riding on the already established measures to see to it that the 78 candidates achieve 100 per cent transition in exams.
Dr Wambeye Marakia, the school Director of Studies (DOS) noted the school has programmes that are centred on content mastery, content retention and content dissemination with everything clearly outlined for the betterment of the learners and that is why the school shines in Bumula and Bungoma at large.
As all this is happening, the school is also grappling with a myriad of challenges, the major one being fee payments. According to the Principal, they are doing a hand-to-mouth as a number of the parents are very poor when it comes to fee payments.
“We even allow fee payments in kind but we still find it very difficult to run school programmes as a number of them require money but we are always incapacitated,” she said.
The school has also a rich history in co-curricular as it is a giant in music festivals but at times things don’t work because of financial constraints.
