Mombasa schools rise again to reclaim lost glory in national exams

Popular schools in Mombasa which have in the recent years raised eyebrows for recording poor KCSE results are slowly regaining their lost glory.

It was all jubilation at Shimo La Tewa High School and Allidina Visram after they both recorded remarkable improvement with mean scores of 7.9 and 7.5 respectively up from of 6.3 and 7.3 in the 2013 KCSE exam.

Celebrations also rocked Abu Hureira Academy whose performance has been wavering over years after they recorded their highest results ever in the 2014 KCSE exam with a mean score of 9.6.

Allidina Visram, a district school, has particularly raised concern amongst parents and the community for its drastic drop from a mean score of above 8.0 six years ago to a mean score of 6 in the 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 KCSE exams.

Allidina’s senior teacher Stephen Obara blamed the consistent poor performance over the years to the computerised form selection which he said forces the school to admit students with low grades that end up affecting the school’s mean score.

“Being a district school sometimes we get students with 200 marks in KCPE exams and we can’t do anything about that.

“We cannot therefore compete with the top schools who do not admit students with less than 350 marks in the KCPE exam which eventually contributes to high KCSE scores.

"Earlier, when we would use manual selection we would get the best students as teachers would urge them to select Allidina for national, provincial and district schools,” said Mr Obara at the school.

SHIMO LA TEWA ON THE RISE

Shimo La Tewa High School which had been performing quite well in the past also begun drastically dropping in performance in the recent past.

“Our performance has shot to a mean score of 7.9 up from 6.3 in the 2013 KCSE exam and this I attribute to cooperation from parents and other stakeholders.

“Lack of cooperation from parents used to be one of our challenges. They started attending meetings and it has played a huge role in improvement,” Principal Joseph Mwadime said.

The same upward trend has been witnessed at Abu Hureira Secondary School.

“Our performance has been going up and down. In the 2010 KCSE exam we had a mean score of 7.3, 2011 we had 9.1, 2012 we had 8.8 and 2013 8.5 and now 2014 we are back on track with a mean score of 9.6,” said Abu Hureira headteacher Maalim Salim.

Other schools who continued to celebrate exemplary performance were Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed with a mean score of 10.12 and Light Academy which had a mean score of 9.9.

Meanwhile, top performers at Mombasa’s Aga Khan High School were treated to a sumptuous lunch by the institution.

Wadha Swaif, Ibtisam Omar, Sumeiya Mohammed, Ummeattiya Munir, Humeira Salim and Elikana Ali from Aga Khan High Shool, all scored As of 84 points.

The group consisting of five girls and one boy attributed their success to prayer, group work, concentrating in class and consulting their teachers every time.

Sumeiya Mohammed who is also a former head girl and Elikana Ali a deputy head boy, also topped in the 2010 KCPE at Aga Khan Primary School with 413 and 411 marks respectively.

“No student is weak. All of us have the potential but we do not just exploit it.

“God, support from teachers, discipline and hard work results to success,” Islam Said who topped with an A plain at Abu Hureira Academy said.