Maliera High School Principal Jared Opondo Welcomes KCSE Results

MALIERA high School Head Principal Jared Opondo has welcomed the Schools KCSE mean score of 8.5 points saying it reflects the ability of his students.

Opondo says the students have performed to their best adding that lots of efforts and sacrifices have been put by teachers for the quality grades to be earned.

Mr Opondo accepted the results posted by the school saying it was realised after several sessions for counselling the boys who were difficult to contain in class.

“Am happy that short-term and long-term strategies that had introduced in the year 2020 after I was posted in Maliera High school bore fruits and most students reformed from their bad habits.

Speaking at his office on Friday, Opondo thanked the students for posting good results adding that shows that the school is indeed on the right trajectory.

“We also undertook social activities such as team-building to ease students reformation journey,” he said.

We invited a team of very powerful key speakers in the key subject and they were well mentored,”

“yes, we have dropped from a mean score of 9.067 to a mean score of 8.362 but that does not deter us from achieving our target of 9 in 2025,” he added.

With a candidature of 196, the school had 13 students with grade A, 25 (B+), 45(B plain), 65(B-), 34(C+) and a C- so 92.85 per cent are transiting to the University.

It’s the first time the mean score dropped since 2020. In 2019 the mean score was 4, 2010 it was 5.2, 2021 it hit 6 while 2023 and 2024 the mean score was 9 and 8.3 respectively.

The boosting subjects were Mathematics, Physics, History, Business studies, Agriculture and Biology but there was a significant drop in the Chemistry.

Maliera was full of bad boys who were good at abusing drugs and what they new best was to burn school.

To establish how bad the school was, had sought opinion of a colleague on admitting a relative to the school and he warned me against admitting the student.

“I was doing so to get the situation on the ground because had just received a transfer letter from the TSC to join Maliera high school. Infact, was welcomed with a strike…was bored and my remarks cut short …but later learnt how to cope up with them.

You cant, you cant tame us” some of the youths had shouted at me.

At night, had intensified patrols in the school. The issue of drug was a very serious menace here at Maliera but I thank God that the journey has been very painful but the far we have reached, we have seen the hands of God.

Mr Opondo said he decided to embrace the weak students who performed dismally.

“The teachers could easily go along with bright students and would accept them whenever they are approached for consultations but the weak ones were left for me to handle,” said Opondo.

I was engaging them on inspiration talks and would name them according to universities as a way of building their attitudes positively. We had placed them in cohorts of grade D, C-, C, C+, B, B-, B+.

“I had to invite various professionals who engaged the boys on the Motivational talks and counselled them effectively,” said Opondo adding that the reformed groups were treated to party and at times were treated to trips and sumptuous meals.

The Initiatives impacted positively in the performances of the students to an extent of graduating to cohorts with quality grades,” he added.

Opondo attributes the quality performance to team spirit, early completion of the syllabus and undisrupted learning sessions.

Had ensured the student get great meals, and they enjoyed their stay in the school at times, could come up with a bursary kitty and seek support from well-wishers to boost it.

“There is a time that had mobilised well-wishers that helped to contribute up to Sh 800.000 which we used to sponsor bright and needy students

Enrolled here at Maliera,” said Opondo adding that the initiative has retained students in the school.

So far, the fee arrears is Sh 15 million.

The key challenge that is bedevilling the institution is poor fee payment.

“The absence of Form ones in the school is a blow to us in terms of fee payment because they pay it up to 90 per cent,” said Opondo.

We now depend on fee from students in form 2, 3 and 4.

Opondo also introduced a programme dubbed Somesha Mwenzako that has seen students wearing tattered school uniform get new ones.

“we had introduced Somesha Mwenzako Programe where students with tattered uniforms were blessed with new ones bought from funds contributed by their colleagues,” said OPondo.

The initiative has not only puut a smile on the faces of the students but also made them to concentrate on their study.

ADVERTISEMENT dalanews.co.ke https://g.page/r/CerTmAWCtzj4EBM/review ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬ÿÛ C