Eva Odhiambo, the new Kisumu Girls chief principal, got more than a warm welcome at her new work station on January 17, 2024.
The learners sang, danced, and shouted. Ecstatic! The welcome attracted mass media and social media mentions that came with a flow of comments.
Ms Odhiambo is taking over from Sironga Girls, one of the only two national schools in Nyamira County. The other is Nyambaria High that topped the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination charts in 2022, a performance that made students christen the school ‘Kenya One’.
She is taking charge at the school that last September was closed when the students went on strike and refused to speak up, leading the regional education officials to get their views in writing.
Ms Odhiambo is replacing Margaret Mechumo who has been transferred to Chwele Girls High School in Bungoma County. Former Tombe Girls head, Jane Nyanumba, is taking over at Sironga.
As a seasoned teacher, she may be used to such warm welcome, but such reception could lead to early soul-searching, especially in a country where performance in the Form Four national exams is matter of life and death.
‘Poor performance’ in KCSE has boosted or shaken careers of teachers and head teachers, depending on the outcome, especially the number of candidates “joining university directly” after attaining the minimum entry grade of C+ (plus).
But, who is Ms Eva Akeyo Odhiambo?
When she was promoted to head Kochogo Secondary School in Kisumu County from Ahero Girls where she was the deputy, Ms Odhiambo got a warm welcome but from four learners who were the only students at the new school. There was no song and dance, but the learners were expectant.
“I was the deputy at Ahero Girls with more than 900 students and posted as principal to a new school with four learners,” Ms Odhiambo said in the past. “They were two girls and two boys; two were total orphans, the rest were partial orphans,” she explained.
“The students were bubbly, so I decided I would not abandon them,” the teacher says, adding that she entered the only structure/classroom within the school through a hole in the wall.
One of these four learners once invited her to London, giving Ms Odhiambo a chance to visit one of the top cities in the world for the second time in her life.
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Although it is not easy to reject a promotion on the condition of the work station, her decision to stay at Kochogo reveals a go-getter whose grit will give the Kisumu CBD school the glitter it needs in nurturing the future leaders. More often than not, employees have read transfers as a promotion, demotion, or punishment.
Ms Odhiambo, the daughter of a former assistant minister in President Daniel arap Moi’s government, challenges learners that they have “the master key” they can use to turn their lives around.
Saying her late father— James Mbori Yogo, who was Kasipul Kabondo MP—valued education, the chief principal is probably applying the same philosophy to put the youth on a firmer pedestal of growth.
While secondary school teenagers are giving parents sleepless nights, demanding to own mobile phones, she thinks this is the wrong focus. “The only thing girls value is a phone; desist from that!” she warns them.
On the security of girls, Ms Odhiambo uses a tight leash, advising parents: “Accompany your daughter to her school and go for her during the breaks. Do not leave a lot of room”.
Among other burdens, teen pregnancies, drug abuse and falling education standards are giving parents, guardians and the Kenyan government sleepless nights.
When he released the 2023 KCSE results early this month, Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu told the nation the more than 48,000 grade E scores in the exam “pained me”.
editor@aplain.co.ke
