St Kevin Secondary School, a mixed day school in Turkana whose enrolment is open to all

St Kevin Secondary School, situated about a kilometre from Lodwar town in Turkana County, is a unique school in many disciplines.

Its mission: “To provide quality education to the academically qualified but economically deprived student of Turkana in a region on the margin of the Kenyan society”.

It is doing just that going by the fees it charges, type of students it admits, entry marks and number of students enrolled.

Most of the students here are orphans, who are mainly sponsored by Xaverian Brothers. They have rented for them a centre to live in and scribbled encouraging message on the school wall - March on! God Will Provide!

The mixed day school, was started in 1993 by the late Bishop John Mahon, an Irish Catholic missionary from St Patricks Missionary Society, with the intention to assist poor, but bright students within the region. They would finish primary school but fail to proceed to high school.

It has the highest enrollment in the county standing today at a population of 1,200 plus students with four streams per class with plans underway to put up another stream per class once funds are available.

Tom Karani, Director of Studies, said the school has several unique qualities starting with the fact that a quarter of the students’ population is made up of older students.

“We do not consider marks as long as we do not go below the ministry’s recommended minimum of 200 marks. We also do not bother much on age, we have students who are 30 years and above. We are sometimes forced to solve family disputes here,” he says with a smile.

According to school records, out of the students who are between 18 and 40-years-old, 177 are male while 33 are female.

Students pay Sh15,975 per year, which caters for operational costs including breakfast, lunch and supper since it has special cases for those who live around the school because they come from as far as Lokori, Kakuma, Lokichoggio and Lokitaung.

“The school fees is the lowest in Turkana County, perhaps even in the entire republic,” says Mark Lochampa, the principal.

This amount is an increase from 1993, when school fees was merely Sh3,000 per year until 2010.

“We rarely send students home because of school fees. They may just not come back and that will be the end of that student’s education. Many have fees arrears which makes running of the school a big challenge,” he says.

The Government took over running of the school in 2011 and today it has 18 Teacher Service Commission teachers and 22 Board of Management members. The huge student population is handled by a total of 40 teachers who sometimes have classes with as many as 70 to 100 students. This, according to Karani has affected their academic performance.

Last year, the school took around 30 students — who got C+ and above to university. This is out of 227 that had sat the Form Four national exam. Because of biting poverty in the region, some of the students face challenges in regular attendance. Guidance and Counselling teacher, Sister Beatrice Wanjiru, says girls are in need of sanitary pads.

“Many of these girls come from economically poor backgrounds and they cannot afford such essentials. We, however, keep working with them because they have a real desire to learn, which motivates us as teachers,” she says.

However, despite the myriad challenges it faces, the school has established itself as a centre for champions in co-curricular activities including sports and music.

This is evidenced by the trophies and uncountable certificates pinned on the principal’s office. The students have represented the school in various regional as well as national competitions. For instance, music has taken the school up to national levels and it has, for the past three consecutive years, won The Best Merile Folk Song trophy.

Yet the school’s truest success comes from lives changed because of its presence in the region.