Aiming to Excel

Elizabeth Owiso strode confidently towards the lectern amid clapping from her fellow students, teachers and parents. She stood briefly, her hands clasped together, before shaking hands with the man behind the microphone.

“This is the student who will emerge tops in the national examinations next year,” Mr. Bernard Muthengi, the Dean of Studies at the Domus Mariae Secondary School, predicted as Elizabeth received her prize for best student in the school’s senior class.

Elizabeth and several other students were being awarded at the school’s 2010 Annual General Meeting (AGM) for being the best in academics, sports, personal improvement, discipline and exemplary leadership.

This year will be a turning point for Domus Mariae. For the first time, the two-year-old school will have its Form Four class sitting for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations, and the school community has begun preparing early for good results.

Judging from the speeches at the meeting, it is clear Domus Mariae is raring to build a strong tradition founded on academic excellence, keen discipline, community service and the provision of opportunity to bright students from poor backgrounds.

The school’s PTA chairwoman, Ms. Amina Karama, informed the gathering at the AGM that the candidate class would spend two extra weeks in school during the April holidays so that the teachers can accelerate the syllabus towards completion, freeing more time for revision later in the year.

Ms. Karama also announced plans to reprise a volunteer community service programme that the school had initiated last year.

“Last year’s community service initiative was very successful, and we received impressive feedback from the places where our students volunteered. We will do it again this year,” Ms. Karama said.

School principal Peter Apiyo commended the parents and guardians for their cooperation and for allowing the teachers to infuse discipline without interference. He however urged them to prevent their children from carrying mobile phones to school because they have been used in other schools to cheat in examinations and to access negative aspects of the internet, especially violent and pornographic material.

“We deal with discipline very decisively, and we thank the parents for allowing us to instill discipline using our trained hands,” Mr. Apiyo said.

As if to prove their level of discipline, the students were remarkably neat in their white shirts, maroon pullovers and well pressed navy blue trousers, and all of them were shod in gleaming black shoes.

The principal was full of praise for School’s PTA and the teachers. He also paid tribute to the Koinonia Community and its founder, Fr. Renato Kizito Sesana, for building and continuing to support the school.

“Domus Mariae is a young school,” Mr. Apiyo summed up. “We started out in January 2008 and we keep improving. Our donors have already constructed the facilities; it is now upon us to build a strong tradition that is unique to Domus Mariae.”

Koinonia’s Administrator, Esther Kabugi, confirmed the organization’s dedication the school’s development.

“Our commitment is to ensure the youth are well educated and well groomed to face the future,” Ms. Kabugi assured the school community.