A learning institution in Migori is experiencing a quiet academic revolution as once-forgotten learning giants shake off years of academic stagnation.
For decades, Dede Girls Secondary School in Awendo Sub-County, a former academic powerhouse, slipped from prominence, posting poor national examinations results and losing the confidence of parents, students and the wider community.
But in the last few years, Dede Girls has been steadily reclaiming its place in the national education space, a turnaround that began under Principal Margaret Okonjo, who stepped into a school struggling with eroding morale, behavioural challenges and a community that no longer viewed education as a reliable pathway to opportunity.
Her first task was rebuilding belief among teachers, parents, and the girls themselves.
Despite ageing classrooms, overstretched staff, and inadequate facilities, the school cultivated discipline, strengthened teaching structures, and revived academic ambition.
The result has been positively transformative, as clearly evident in the just-released 2025 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results, with the institution posting an impressive mean score of 9.05 (B plain), rising sharply from a mean score of 7.0 in the 2024 KCSE, signalling a profound shift in attitude and performance.
The school made history in the 2025 KCSE by registering 7 A’s, more than a decade after registering a single A- in 2012.
With better resources and staffing, the school is optimistic it can send even more learners to university and restore its reputation as one of the region’s best-performing girls’ schools.
In the 2025 results, all the students except one achieved a mean score of C+, a direct university entry equivalent to 99.22 per cent.
The Principal says that in the last four years, the school has improved in terms of discipline, a key aspect that has resulted in good KCSE performances.
“We have been working as a team – the teachers, Board of Management (BOM), the non-teaching staff, the students and the community – a unity of togetherness that has helped us to identify problems and find amicable solutions,” she disclosed.
Okonjo, who has been in the institution for the past six years, says that it’s through proper management and motivation that the school’s academics have improved over the last four years.
The revival has also uplifted the spirit of the teaching fraternity, and according to Okonjo, the yesteryear of poor performance had drained their confidence and contributed to perceptions that the school was below standard.
Today, teachers describe a renewed sense of purpose and are determined to restore Dede Girls, an Extra County School, to the level it once occupied in the academic space.
Through persistence, stronger discipline structures and a recalibration of its learning programme, Dede Girls has slowly rebuilt its academic culture, an investment that the Principal says has paid off.
Migori’s academic rebirth is still evolving, but the momentum is unmistakable.
Schools that once lived in the shadows of their past are stepping confidently back into the light, proving that with determination, investment and belief, lost glory can indeed be revived.
The achievements of the Dede Girls form part of a broader story unfolding across Migori.
Once-dismissed institutions are rediscovering their strength through committed leadership, closer collaboration with local communities and a renewed appreciation for mentorship and structured learning.
The latest results of Dede Girls offer not only celebration but also the promise of a new chapter, one where Migori’s schools are starting to reclaim their rightful place on Kenya’s education map.
According to Okonjo, the area Member of Parliament (MP) Walter Owino has also been supportive by offering bursaries to students, reducing the burden of school fees on parents.
But the major challenge the school is still facing is lack of enough infrastructure to accommodate the new education system, the Competence-Based Education (CBE) for Grade 10 students.
She disclosed that the school needs more standard infrastructure to cater for the three pathways (stem, social science and sport) that the school is offering to equip and train the newly admitted Grade 10 students.
By Makokha Khaoya
