How principal turned around slum school

Former Embakasi Girls’ High School principal Nancy Mutai. (Photo:Joe Ombuor/Standard)

Kenya: Nancy Mutai describes as a rude jolt her first impression of Embakasi Girls’ High School in Nairobi.

“Honestly, nothing in the name prepared me for a slum environment and the myriad challenges the school presented. Embakasi was no launch pad to the skies or runway of sorts as the name suggests.”

Three years down the line and after consigning the sordid slum image behind a concrete wall, the school is a sign of hope.

The school’s dairy cattle graze away on the expansive compound. A greenhouse with a thriving tomato crop holding green and ripe fruits, a tree garden named after African political icon Nelson Mandela and a fish pond replete with the finned creatures ready to be part of the students’ meal.

When she landed there as principal, the school was lost in the slums. “Nothing, including the all-important academics that has picked up would survive here when the school was part of the surrounding slum. Nothing!”

Mrs Mutai, who was transferred to Ngara Girls’ High School, adulates the flowery parade ground that she describes fondly as “my pet project... It is the successor of the sleazy grounds where the school once held its parades next to the slum”.

Threaten to paralyse

A board at the grounds bears the school motto: Strive to Excel. Only crippling floods that from time to time threaten to paralyse the school’s activities and a thoroughfare cutting across the school compound with ominous repercussions mock that motto. “Plans have been floated by county authorities to arrest the floods that flow from as far as Mombasa road to the school. As for the throughway, a settlement on the land dispute is overdue,” she says.

She reflects back three years, flashing a smile to camouflage indelible, images she endured.

“You see, I drove right into the school compound through slum territory. No physical boundary separated the slum from the school dominated by prefabricated structures of wooden planks and corrugated iron sheets. I immediately reckoned that I had to make that boundary my first priority and said as much to the board of governors at our initial meeting. Learning was impossible with jua kali garages and kiosks selling all manner of wares. Something had to be done, and fast.”

“I issued a month’s notice to kiosk owners and people with vehicles including matatu drivers who parked in the school compound to vacate but was met with resistance. Delegations were sent to talk me to rescind the decision. I refused to budge.”

“We were at the parade raising the national flag one morning when a mischievous driver hooted rudely at us to give way. That gave me the impetus to launch the construction of a perimeter wall that today runs around the 22 acre school compound, a section of which is contested by private developers. The fence cost Sh10 million of which Sh1.6 million came from the government. The rest was raised by parents.”

 

Developers intending to grab half of the land raised hell to the extent of storming the school compound on one occasion accompanied by armed Administration Police officers led by Embakasi District Officer. A confrontation ensued and I told the DO to his face that he was misusing government resources that would be better utilised for public good.

“I told the DO society expected him to use resources availed to him by the government to protect innocent people, school girls included and not land grabbers. Students joined the fray in the charged atmosphere, forcing the police officers to shoot in the air as they fled, forming a human shield around the DO and a hired land surveyor.”

“The fencing proceeded amid hiccups. Part of the land is still under contention from the developers but we have applied for a title deed to secure the undisputed piece.”

After a pause, she says: “The throughway is serious security breach. Armed thugs have often used it as an escape route. We had a chilling moment in August last year when a criminal was killed by the public in the school compound. The incident haunted the girls for long.”

Disillusioned parents

Mutai says the school she inherited in 2011 was but a shadow of its current state. “Student population stood at 150 compared to the current 500 plus. There was no discipline to speak home about largely due to bad influence from the slum. Uninspired teachers and students steeped in low esteem posted poor Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education results at a pathetic mean grade of 3.3 per cent that has since risen to 5.2 per cent.”

“Disillusioned parents saw the school as a mere holding ground for their daughters as they shopped around for better schools. The turnover was big. Teachers equally lacked discipline after years of work without set standards. Many had reached incorrigible levels, forcing me to ask the Ministry of Education for their replacement. That bore fruits.”

“The greatest hurdle was that of instilling discipline in students for proper learning. I had to get rid of the rotten eggs to save the redeemable ones. We made sure the syllabus that was never completed in time due to laxity was covered in appropriate time. I remember hiring a taxi to ferry teachers from their homes some as far as Kayole to have them in school early to give extra coaching to the candidates. Academic levels went up.”

“To appreciate our hard working students, we came up with a motivational package and took to releasing examination results in style. We invited teachers from top performing schools to talk to our students.”

Among the projects Mutai undertook to boost the students’ morale and self-esteem included a school bus and construction of a boarding master’s house. “We invited the Global Peace Foundation (GPF) to include Embakasi Girls’ in the Character and Creativity Initiative crucial in producing all rounded students and the leap hubs project that prepares students for after school challenges.”

Our Leap hubs lab ranks with the best equipped with computers among the nine pioneering schools. We were among the beneficiaries of free internet network connection by Airtel, courtesy of GPF.

What does she envisage for her new school? Mutai, with a Grin: “Raising the mean score from seven to eleven.”