By Oanga Oyugi
Kereri Girls’ High School in Kisii County has shocked many by the number of candidates for the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations, a probable national record.
From 576 in the 2021 exam, the school has almost doubled that figure to 822. This may as well constitute a combination of two average schools’ total population. They have set their mean score at 8.3 based on the 7.3 attained in the last KCSE.
The school administration is not scared, assuring that the numbers will not affect the standard score because both students and teachers are focused on one goal: to forge ahead.
According to the chief principal Teresa Otieno, the overall population is 3,186 mustered by 97 teachers.
There are 641 and 866 students in Form 3 and Form 2 respectively, plus a further 812 in Form 1. They are all working on their respective targets.
The school’s performance and enrollment started taking an upturn from 2017 when the current principal arrived. That year they registered 309 candidates and scored a mean of 5.76, and were yet to improve the following year when they registered 358 candidates and managed a mean of 6.37.
The total population stood at 1,402 then, and later increased to 1,486 and 1,700 in 2020. By 2021 KCSE, the total number was 2,176 before shooting up by over a thousand to the current figure.
In 2019, the school registered 368 candidates and managed a mean of 6.86, and the following year, they had 431 who scored an average of 7.87.
Last year, 365 students out of the total 576 attained grade C+ and above to gain direct university entry, which was a reflection of sixty eight per cent.
