Hard work, commitment and determination are some of the strategies that pushed Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Secondary School in Mombasa to emerge top in the Coast region.
In the results announced by Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha on Saturday, the school, which had 238 candidates, managed an impressive score of 9.1.
This is an improvement of 0.09 from the 2020 examination when the school had 9.01.
Overall, the school had 10 students who score straight As, 31 A-, 56B+, 62 B plain, 41 B-, 32 C+, four C, and two C- (minus).
Sheik Rishard Ramadhan, the deputy principal of Sheikh Khalifa, said from the beginning of the second term they introduced two classes that would run from 4pm to around 5:30pm and another class from 7pm to 8pm.
“The classes from 4pm helped the students cover the syllabus and we were able to finish on time. The classes from 7pm helped the students do revision for Form 1 and Form 2 coursework,” Ramadhan said.
Of the top 10 students at Sheikh Khalifa, eight were girls.
The school’s best candidate, Iqra Elyas Ahmed, had an A of 83 points. She is the top girl at the Coast.
The top boy from the Coast region is from Kenyatta High School in Mwatate in Taita Taveta, Rajab Said, who scored an A of 84 points.
He was followed closely by Munyao Mutinda and William Ndurya with 82 points.
Kizwana Mwashighadi of the same school scored an A of 81 points.
In a phone interview with the Star from Nairobi, the Coast top girl Iqra said she had hoped to score an A, but did not foresee being the top student in the region.
“I just wanted to get an A, but it had never crossed my mind that I would be the top girl at the Coast. I am so grateful to God,” she said.
She wants to pursue medicine when she joins university.
Other top students in the school were Sultan Sedra Fuad with an A of 82, Alwiya Omar Sharrif (82), Salwa Mohammed Sharrif (82), Fatma Zahra Nassir (81), Adan Fartun Siraj (81), Mukhlisa Yasin Haji (81) and Fatma Mahmoud Mohammed (81).
The two top boys were Mohammed Abdhalla Mohammed and Ibrahim Salax Ali, both with an A of 81 points.
A few kilometres from Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Secondary School is Shimo la Tewa School, the only boys’ national school in Mombasa.
Mombasa has two national schools: Shimo la Tewa and Mama Ngina Girls.
Shimo la Tewa School principal Mathews Mutiso told the Star that out of the 359 candidates who sat last year’s KCSE examination at their institution, 232 managed grade C+ and above.
In 2020, Mutiso said, out of the 281 candidates, they had only 187 who managed a C+ and above.
“The boys did so well and we are happy to report that a good number will be able to join the top universities across the country,” he said.
The Shimo La Tewa principal said they had five boys with A- (minus), 31 B, 43 students with B plain and 78 of them had B- (minus).
The school managed a mean of 7, which makes it among the top public schools in the region.
“With a population of 1,600 students, Shimo is among the schools with a bigger population, but the boys are very disciplined," Mutiso said.
'Last year, when every school was witnessing cases of arson, our boys remained calm, but there was some level of anxiety.”
Other schools that performed well at the coast are Light Academy, Memon High School, Abu Hureira Academy and Aga Khan Academy
Alfarsy Girls Secondary School in Mvita, which had 184 candidates, is among the top 10 subcounty secondary schools which posted impressive performance.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
“WATCH: The latest videos from the Star”
