The rise and rise of St Francis Girls School

By Ally Jamah

St Francis Girls High School in Mang’u was started as a boarding intermediate school for girls in 1944, and named after the patron saint of the Congregation of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa (FMSA).

They founded the school as part of their evangelistic mission in Mang’u and, in 1944, the Sisters started a Form One Harambee Class, which gradually replaced the intermediate primary school.

In 1965, the school received a grant for that year’s Form One Class and continued to receive Government subsidies like other public schools until 1987, when all grants from the Ministry of Education were suspended.

Since then, parents have continued to meet all the school’s financial obligations.

Transforming the old intermediate school to a secondary school inevitably brought many problems, such as lack of proper physical facilities for secondary expansion.

The school remained a single stream as it occupied the old St Francis compound across the busy Thika–Nairobi Highway.

Towards the end of 1972, and through the intervention of the late Cardinal Otunga, the Ministry of Education allowed the girls to take the premises occupied by Mang’u High, after the boys school moved to their present location.

In 2001, a new Form One stream was opened. Now the school has three streams from Form One to Four, and a student population of 615, 40 teachers and 30 non-teaching staff.

The Board of Governors and the Parents Teachers Association have initiated a four-year expansion plan to be rolled out in phases. Part of this was implemented in 2001 through the opening of a third provincial stream in the school. Now their sights are trained on a new dormitory block and restoration of decaying buildings.