St Anthony Boys Principal, Performance And Excelling In Extracurricular Activities 

The current St Anthony Boys principal is Mr Victor Makanda whose leadership style is geared towards moulding an all rounded student. He has transformed the institution into an academic giant and a sports powerhouse. Before joining St Anthony, Mr Makanda was the principal of Barding Boys and he is best remembered for steering the institution into winning the East and Central Secondary Schools soccer championships in 2016. 

Performance 

The institution in Trans Nzoia county continues to post admirable results year in year out.  In 2019, St Anthony scored a mean grade of 7.8 and upped the mean grade to 8.73 in 2020 in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations. The school was the third best performing institution in the county. Out of the 392 candidates who sat for the examination, 340 attained C+ above, the pass for joining university. The school produced the best student in the county in 2019 who attained A Plain. In an article appearing on the Standard sports, Mr Makanda attributed the good performance to early preparedness saying “The trick is simply, to cover the syllabus on time and ensure adequate time to revise.”

And how he manages to outperform other schools and excel in sports, the principal told the publication:

“Basically it has been our tradition to balance academics and sports. We don’t see any conflict between the two as we have mastered tricks to ensure we excel in both,…’ 

Football

The school football team has won six national football champion titles and was crowned the East and Central Africa Secondary School soccer champions after whitewashing Kibuli Boys of Uganda in 2002. Mr Makanda has emphasized the importance of sports to the well being of a students and the opportunities that come with it:

“It has been proven that sports enhance discipline among students. An exhausted student from the field is refreshed, fit and alert in the mind. Our school is a testimony that sports heighten discipline and disengage students from being destructive…”

The school has been an incubator of top footballing talents who have gone to play in the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) competitions. In March 2020, FKF inaugurated St Anthony as the Centre for Excellence for football in the country. The principal went on to state that sports presents opportunities for students who are weak in academics to nurture sporting talents..” 

He cited Wisdom Naya who managed to score a C (Plain) in KCSE and now plies his trade at Sofapaka FC. Other students who passed through the institution and are now playing for top clubs include Tyson Kapchanga (Bandari) and Geoffrey Onchwati and Elly Saenyi who are on trials with a club in Denmark. Another huge prospect is Juma Lugogo who attained a C+. Not taking all the credit for the success of the school in and out of class, the principal said: 

“My teachers are committed both in class and sports. We have maintained our spirits, and we have ensured we are not defeated by our rivals…”

2020 successes

The school won the under 19 Kenya Kenya secondary schools football trophy and topped it up by clinching national schools hockey title. And it did not end there-the was crowned the national music champions, winning the class 371 Luhya-Luo folk.

Scholarship

The school emphasis on sporting activities is not in vain. St Anthony, for example, has a partnership with Strathmore University that sees atleast six students get free scholarships per year. Other students are now on trials with top clubs in Denmark. 

According to the principal, the school spent kes6 million in extra-curriculum activities.