Salvation Army Kolanya Girls National School Chief Principal Dr. Tabitha Okama has exuded confidence that the school that took top position in the 2024 KCSE in the county has shown potential of bettering that performance.
Dr. Okama said they were on a journey as a national school, with the aim of retaining their magnanimity with zeal.
The school head also cited challenges in infrastructure, noting that they needed support to give it a national phase, including space for construction of a dormitory and dining hall.
The 2024 KCSE saw KNEC introduce the new grading system. The new system seeks to enhance fairness, particularly for students who performed well in some subjects but struggled in others that were previously mandatory in computing the mean grade.
Under this revised grading approach, all KCSE candidates must be assessed in mathematics, which remains a compulsory subject.
Additionally, instead of requiring students to be graded based on both English and Kiswahili, the system now considers only the best-performed language among English, Kiswahili, or Kenya Sign Language.
Dr. Okama said that for the last three years, they have given Mathematics priority with a range of programmes twice a week and another special one to look at attitude of some girls who tended to have low attitude towards the subject.
Nairobi Assembly Majority Leader Peter Imwatok said “getting a mean score of 8.04 and emerging among the best 5 in Western Kenya in this environment is not easy”.
On capitation, Imwatok termed it a serious issue, urging the government to release funds to schools as soon as possible.
“Busia is situated in the first sugar belt with two sugar companies which should embrace Corporate Social Responsibility in schools.
Teso North Sub County of Director Elizabeth Marangach said the school did the sub county proud by becoming top in the county in 2024 KCSE despite the challenges it faced of the broken borehole.
Availing the latest statistics, Ms. Marangach said 10 years ago, Teso North took the last position among the seven counties in KCSE, but moved to position 2 in 2023 and position one in 2024 exams.
“Teachers should not get tired but intensify efforts in imparting knowledge to students,” said Ms. Marangach while exuding confidence that with the discipline of 2025 KCSE students being of the highest order, results were expected to surpass those of last year.
Angurai East Member of the County Assembly David Parapara applauded the girls’ school for emerging the top in the county in terms of 2024 KCSE of performance.
By Absalom Namwalo
