When Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha announced the placement of Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidates for 2021, two little-known schools were recognized for having the highest admission.
Magoha mentioned in his speech that St. Albert Ulanda Girls in Migori County and Sironga Girls in Nyamira County will each admit over 800 students in May.
Given President Uhuru Kenyatta’s policy of 100% transition from primary to secondary school, the CS praised the two institutions for investing in infrastructure to allow them to accommodate a large number of students.
“I am proud to state that there are schools that have gone out of their way to expand capacity in support of 100% transition. In this regard, I would wish to recognize St. Albert Ulanda Girls and Sironga Girls who 29 are going to admit 864 and 816 candidates respectively,” Magoha stated.Unbeknownst to many, the two are among the few schools established after Kenya’s independence in 1963.
Sironga Ladies
Sironga was established in 1968 as a mixed school with only 62 students after a fundraising event attended by the late President Daniel Arap Moi.
After the government increased the number of national institutions in the country, the school was converted into a girls boarding school and designated as a national school in 2013.
The institution is well-known for its multi-story high-rise buildings with specialized facilities such as a science complex. The majority of their structures are painted maroon, hence the nickname “maroon palace.”
In recent years, the two schools have excelled in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams. Sironga Secondary received an average score of 8.2 on the 2020 KCSE exam.
St Albert Ulanda Girls, on the other hand, was founded in 1967 and was designated as an extra county school during the government’s restructuring program for National schools in the country.
The school performed admirably in the 2021 KCSE results, achieving a mean score of 8.5 with 529 candidates. Almost all of the students were admitted directly to the university.
St Albert Ulanda made headlines in 2016 when a stray bullet struck a student who was playing while prison wardens pursued an escaped convict.
