Nyakemincha Secondary refuses to be the tail in exams

The name Nyakemincha is synonymous with failure in examinations.

This, however, is not the case with St Peters Nyakemincha Day Secondary School which overcame the odds to emerge among the top three in the Kenya Certificate Of Secondary Education examinations in Nyamira County.  

This is in stark contrast to its namesake Nyakemincha Primary School, which is struggling to find its feet after it came last in national examinations four years ago.

Coincidentally, the name Nyakemincha in the Ekegusii dialect means the tail.

The two schools, which share a compound, are in Bonyamatuta village of West Mugirango Constituency.

In Tuesday’s results, the secondary school’s mean score improved to 8.9914 from 7.9 the previous year.

Principal Samuel Arama said 74 students registered and five of them got A-, 19 had B+, 16 B, 17 B-, 12 C+, 4 had C and one had a C-.

Mr Arama attributed the improved performance to commitment by students, teachers and parents. “My teachers have a passion for excellence and work as a team,” he said.  

FINISH SYLLABUS

“Since this is a day school, we teach for six days per week and we usually finish the syllabus at the end of first term,” he added.

“This allows students time to revise with the assistance of teachers on topics they had not understood well.”

Mr Arama said lessons start at 6.20 am and end at 7.40 pm, with breaks for lunch and games.

“We have 10 lessons a day instead of nine, which enables us to complete the syllabus early,” he said.

The school, with 377 students and 16 teachers, does not have piped water, a laboratory, a library or teachers’ housing.

As a result, teachers have improvised and two classrooms were turned into an administration block and another accommodates three male teachers.