Highway Secondary students excel in academic and sports

Irungu Nduati

Highway Secondary School Principal Mr Irungu Nduati (centre) poses for a photo with his students Teddy Dan Ochieng (left) and Charles Fiold Otieno at the school on January 26, 2023.


Photo credit: Anthony Njagi | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • Nduati hopes to invest more in sports and other extracurricular activities with the implementation of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). 
  • His vision is to make Highway Secondary a center of academic excellence,  and a talent-based activities center.  

Highway Secondary School in Nairobi County is slowly gaining a reputation for excellence in academics and sports.

Categorised as an Extra County school, Highway Secondary is slowly emerging as a force to reckon with in boys' football.

Last year, the school’s football team qualified for the national championships and represented Kenya in the East African Secondary School Games in Arusha. The team finished second behind Uganda’s St Mary’s Kitende, something the school’s head, Chief Principal Irungu Nduati, is proud of.

“Education and extracurricular activities complement one another, that is why I will always support sports and other talent-based activities,” he says.

Five of the players who were in that team have proven that extracurricular activities are not a waste of precious study time.

The five have qualified to join university after sitting 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams.

Tedy Dan Ochieng scored B Minus (B-) , Lennox Kimani C Plus (C+), Abraham Otieno C Plus (C+), Andoras Odhiambo C Plain (C), Abraham Otieno C Plus (C+) and Joseph Amani  B Minus (B-).

"I succeeded in balancing academic work and sports because I knew discipline was key both in class and in the field.  I would like to be a pilot, and to also play football professionally," Ochieng says.

"In Arusha, we were picked by a bus every morning two hours before a match, which was very impactful in our games.  I was the team captain and being a coach, my dad supports me as a footballer. Before joining secondary school, I used to play for the junior team at Kariobangi Sharks,” he says.

"When the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020, we trained in the mornings and evenings so as to be ready when games resumed, and it worked for us. We started preparing for victory way back in 2019," Kimani says.

He believes students can successfully pursue sports and academics at the same.

"Football is simple to play but it is difficult to play simple," Otieno says "You can overcome anything if and only if you love something enough."

Members of the school’s football team performed well and although they have been admitted to different universities to pursue different courses, they say they will continue playing football. It will help them that some local universities take sports such as football, hockey, basketball and volleyball seriously, and compete in national leagues and international events.

They are however worried that most local universities are not keen on football.

They hope to overcome this obstacle through sports scholarships which may take them to foreign universities.

As a striker for Highway Secondary School, Dan proved a nightmare for opposing goalkeepers in Arusha.

Mr Nduati believes extracurricular activities help students adjust and handle classwork in a relaxed frame of mind. 

“I believe the two complement one another, that is why I will always support sports and other talent-based activities,” says Nduati.

“They are not a waste of time but a positive way of spending the student’s time.”

Nduati hopes to invest more in sports and other extracurricular activities with the implementation of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). 

His vision is to make Highway Secondary a center of academic excellence,  and a talent-based activities center.  

“We are seeking scholarships for the boys in colleges and universities that offer sports as a discipline. The school supports its teams by providing equipment, which has aided our progress.”

The school also performs well in handball and basketball and hockey.