Why Starehe Boys’ Centre sent Principal Paul Mugo packing

A section of the Starehe Boys’ Centre, the school suspended its Principal for a month pending decision on his fate. [PHOTO: STANDARD/FILE]

By STANDARD REPORTER

NAIROBI, KENYA: The drop in the national exam rankings of Starehe Boys Centre for the past two years appears to behind the move to send the school’s Principal Paul Mugo on compulsory leave, the first time such a thing has occurred in the school's long history.

The school’s Director Matthew Kithyaka announced Wednesday that the school management committee had taken the decision against Mugo and two other school officials to send them packing for one month.

This comes as the school failed to appear in the top ten ranking of schools in the 2013 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams for the second year running. The school’s Board of managing committee also sent packing the school’s accounts officer and the executive assistant to the Director.

“The management committee will make a decision on the fate of the Principal during the one month compulsory leave. I do not wish to speculate on their decision,” he said in a press briefing at the school.

Deputy Principal Peter Ndungu will be in charge of the institution temporarily as the school’s management committee decide whether to send Mugo packing for good or reinstate him with strict instructions to turn around the performance of the school. Mugo became Principal in 2009.

The institution, which has been known to produce academic champions in the past, took a beating in the ranking from position 12 in 2012 to 17. The school had a mean grade of 10.3 in the 2013 exams, a slight drop compared to the 10.4 the 2012 academic year.

When contacted Wednesday, Mugo declined to comment on the matter saying he was still digesting the news. It appears that he had not been given advance warning. Mugo had blamed the drop in performance in the 2013 exams to the teachers’ strike last year and 2012, saying it disrupted learning badly.

In the 2011 KCSE results, the school was ranked 4th nationally, with one student being in the top ten position. Over 50 students scored a mean grade of A, ten of whom shall be granted the honour to have their names immortalized on the ‘Board of Academic Honours’ having scored straight As in all the eight subjects

The move against Mugo, comes a few days after the school’s Director asserted that they are not too concerned about the schools’ ranking but are only focused on ensuring that all their students qualify to be admitted to quality courses in the university.

“We don’t believe that Starehe is performing poorly. We have largely maintained our mean score for the last ten years, even if our ranking has varied,” he said.

The school had a total of 208 of them sat for KCSE in 2013 with 43 scoring A Plain, 74 with A- (Minuses), 45 students with B+ (plus) and 24 with B Plain. In the same class 14 had B- (minus), six scored C+ (plus) and one managed to score a ‘C’ plain. The class had one D+ (plus)

Most of Wednesday, the Director was holed up in meetings with heads of various Departments of the schools, to strategise on the next move after the ouster of the Principal.

Students remained calm at the announcement of the exit of Mugo for one month, with teaching and learning going on as normal, although the atmosphere was tense.

But some pundits are concerned about the pressure being piled on students, teachers and management to perform well in exams may exert a toll on the psychological health of the school's community.