By George Otieno
Ocean of Wonders School has over the years built its reputation on solid ground, maneuvering the unsteady tides of academia to reach the very top after posting highly competitive results.
In the last three years, the school has won the admiration of many as it recorded mean scores of above 350 with most candidates getting more than 400 marks. In 2019 for instance, the school mean score was 365, slightly varying to 354.7 in 2020 and rising again to 362.44 in 2021.
There is even more to come in 2022, apparently.
“I owe the stunning achievement to my dedicated and hardworking teachers, who are committed to ensuring that the learners get the best quality education. Their selfless devotion, coupled with their teamwork and the learners’ willingness to work have been the drivers of our impressive academic growth,” school director Jane Thuo, said.
In the last two years alone, the institution has had ten of its learners scoring over 400 marks, the highest scorer being a girl in the 2021 KCPE who garnered 416 marks. She became part of the large competitive pool of students that joined top national schools such as Starehe Boys Centre, Pangani Girls, Luguru Girls, Kakamega High, and Kapsabet Boys, among others.
With this exceptional performance, the school is gearing up to conform to the ministry’s request for private schools to create space for Junior Secondary School (JSS).
Thuo has a clear idea of the structure of the new curriculum, saying they had fully embraced the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) where they equally cultivated both a learner’s academic and life skills to help bring out an all-rounded individual.
“We are getting ready for the JSS just as per the CBC curriculum. Presently, we have started putting up new structures in place where we intend to move the current ECDE classes to create space for the pioneer cohort and detach our ECDE from the primary section,” the director explained.
She added that the school had over the years invested heavily in co-curricular activities such as music, drama, and various sports such as taekwondo to provide a suitable avenue for the learners to explore their creative fortes.
Head Teacher Mr. Phillip Nyakundi could not agree more with her remarks, saying they were keenly following what the government wanted in that regard and that they were adequately adjusting and preparing.
“We will be ready for JSS by January. We have even looked beyond JSS to expand to Senior Secondary School (SSS) and make Ocean of Wonders not just a leading institution that provides an all-round education but a centre of excellence in competency-focused education,” he stated.
Mr. Nyakundi further said that as an institution, they had established mechanisms that kept learners engaged and interactive even during holidays or school breaks like the one expected in the run up to and during the August 9 elections.
Mr. Asthman Okumu, his deputy, described the learners as disciplined and great academic performers who are nurtured in a spiritual environment to proudly embrace their faith.
He added that their rallying call was always to work smart and make learning an enjoyable activity so that their stay in school is comfortable and memorable.
“We all love and celebrate good results. When a learner succeeds, everyone is happy. The school is happy. The teachers who helped prepare them are happy. The parents are happy and the learners themselves are also happy,” he remarked.
As Academic Master, Mr. Okumu reiterated that the short school term calendar and the breaks do not bar them from achieving their goals and that the learners will still be efficiently prepared for the national exams later in the year.
Established in the year 2006 with only five learners and two teachers, Ocean of Wonders has come through to raise the population to 482 and establish itself as a household name in Kilifi North Sub-county.
From a humble beginning, the school emerged the best in the sub-county in the 2021 KCPE and at the same time produced the second-best student in the entire Coast region.
“We started small in some church premises where we used to pay Ksh5,000 monthly rent, but after about a year and a half, we bought the land where our premises now stand. We were able to save some considerable amount that helped us get a loan of Ksh180,000 to start the construction of the classes,” the director reflects.
The school has two school buses and two vans that it uses to ferry learners to and from school in Mnarani, Kilifi.
The school’s aspiration is to soon put up an offshoot that will accommodate more learners from as far as Chonyi, an area that has continued to show interest in becoming part of the fast growing institution.
