Principals spin wheels for girls to perform exceptionally

By DORCAS MUGA-ODUMBE

Whenever Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results are announced, they are received with mixed feelings from varied quarters around the nation. There are schools that perennially celebrate good results while others never feature anywhere among the top performers. One may wonder why these schools always top the charts.

Dorothy Kamwilu joins her students to celebrate the good results the Allicance class of 2011 posted in KCSE. [PHOTO: TABITHA OTWORI/STANDARD]

But success does not come easy. It takes an entire school fraternity — principal, teachers, Parents and Teachers Association (PTA), Board of Governors (BOG) and non-teaching staff — to record such results.

In recognition of International Women’s Day that was marked last Thursday, and its theme, Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures, The Standard is recognising some of these principals who have enriched our country, and in particular girls, over the years.

Mrs Dorothy Mukiri Kamwilu, the principal of Alliance Girls’ High School has all reasons to smile. The soft-spoken woman who joined the school from Kaaga Girls’ High School, Meru, in April 2009 has seen the school go back to its rightful position in leaps and bounds.

The school was position three in last year’s KCSE and the top girls’ school in the country.

"We are working hard to get to the top. The girls have the ability and we know that with God, all things are possible. We always put God first," says Kamwilu.

The school that scored a mean of 11.082 in last year’s KCSE now targets 11.5 this year and hopes to have more than 100 girls scoring straight As. The principal believes in building confidence in the girls and helping them relax and have faith in themselves. She has cultivated an open relationship with the students.

"If you are approachable and positive, your students can then look to you for guidance and think of you as a role model, mother and not simply a teacher," she adds.

Kamwilu says the success of the school has also come about as a result of early syllabus coverage. This has been achieved by increasing contact hours between the teachers and the students.

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