Reinventing Co-education in Cherang’any

By eCentury Reporter
Indeed it’s a school without huge magnificent and imposing buildings. A school without power connection to KPLC but depends on a generator to light her classes at night. Yet with such setbacks she was ranked number one in Eldoret West district, no.2 in the greater Uasin Gishu district, no.7 in Rift Valley province and 25 nationally in the 2008 KCSE performance.

The school is Segero Adventist National School, a mixed boarding school whose motto: IN GOD WE EXCEL has literally transformed the slopes of Cherangani Hills from hyena-infested, stiff hill and stony landscape into an icon and epicentre of academic excellence. The school was established in 1976 as a private mission school. It is located 50 km North of Eldoret town on Chepkoilel-Ziwa road. It is currently the best Adventist School in Kenya with a population of 550 students.

All the 91 students who were enrolled for 2008 KCSE passed with C plus and above. They were 52 boys and 39 girls. No candidate had a C grade and below. The school’s ‘Operation C out’ achieved the feat. The school has been systematically getting rid of the undesirable grade according to the deputy principal. Thus they eradicated the C plain and the minus.
The school is turning both girls and boys into great performers demystifying the notion that mixed schools are academic disasters. Nakuru High School formerly a mixed national school was split into two: Nakuru Girls and Nakuru Boys basically to separate boys from girls with a hope to create an enabling academic environment. In Trans-Nzoia district St.Joseph’s High School was equally split into St.Joseph’s Boys and St.Joseph’s Girls with the hope that the move would make a single sex school a better performer.

Segero Adventist National School is a proof that both boys and girls can perform superbly in a co-educational institution. For instance in the 2008 KCSE results two students scored plain As. They were a boy and a girl. A minus were 21:12 boys and 9 girls. B plus were 22:13 boys and 9 girls. The B plain were 20: 12 boys and 8 girls. B minus were 16:8 boys and 8 girls. C plus were 10:6 boys and 4 girls.

According to Boniface Siyoi a language teacher, the school has been registering an upward trend in languages. That in the 2008 KCSE performance English was 9.3 points or B plain. He further revealed that literature set books are introduced and cleared in form two and that from form two onwards students are subjected to a standard language exam which involves three papers. He further noted that 8 lessons per week are taught from form one to four.

Students of Segero according to the Head of Science Mr. Calisto Asembo are performing well in science. In 2008, Chemistry registered a mean of 9.8 or B plus followed by Physics at 8.6 or a B and Biology at 8 or B. He further disclosed that 32 students scored plain As in Chemistry in 2008.

He further observes “Science subjects in Segero are practical. In form 4 for instance they do a practical exam every weekend. Our students must perform experiments practically.”
On the secret of their success he revealed that “teamwork is our benchmark. Marking of papers is done as a group. No lesson is missed or skipped. Whenever a teacher is sick or absent for circumstances beyond his or her control we make sure another teacher is available.”
Asembo is ever in the laboratory with Abraham Rotich the lab technician.
He concluded, “Our students are wonderful; they co-operate with us”.

Victor Kimutai a Form 3 student at Segero joined form one with 380 marks. He came from a public primary school. He had this to say, “I plan be a pilot. An A plain in KCSE is my target”. Winnie Chepkorir another form 3 student came to Segero with 359 marks. She came from a public primary school. “I will become an accountant in future” she notes. Daisy Boroon another form 3 observes that she hopes to become a neurosurgeon. “I will become a lawyer” Betty Maswai added. She had joint Segero with 360 marks from a public primary school. Brian Bichang’a, a form 3 boy who intends to pursue electrical engineering observed, “In Segero we boys treat the girls as our sisters; they in turn treat us as brothers.”