Tharua Secondary School is a mixed day school. It has a capacity of 160 students, 87 of them being boys and 73 girls. They have 8 teachers, 4 employed by the Teachers Service Commission and 4 by the Board of Governors. In addition, there are 4 non teaching staff, including a cook, a night watchman, an accountant and a lab cleaner.
It has 5 classrooms, a temporary kitchen and a temporary administration block. There are also 3 boys’ toilets and a urinal, 3 teachers’ toilets and a urinal and 6 girls’ toilets. The school also has 4 water storage tanks, 3 of 10000 litres donated to the school by the Ministry of Water and 1 of 3500 litres donated by the Laikipia County Council.
Students at Tharua Secondary School study hard and use all the possible techniques to improve their grades in school. They have formed school families composed of students from form one (grade 9) to form four (grade 12) which are meant to bring students together to discuss matters concerning performance in school.
The families have a mother and father figure. If a child in the family doesn’t perform well, he/she is advised on performance matters. If the student improves in the next exam the family group is rewarded by the teachers by adding points and the group is also taken for an academic tour. This has greatly helped the students of Tharua Secondary School since every group is determined to work harder in order to gain the benefits. They name their groups according to the names that they think will best suit them, such as Nelson Mandela Group, Reliable Shepherds, Achievers and Super Winners, among many others.
Tharua has also got some challenges which they think could interfere with their students performances now and even in the future if they do not address them. Some of these challenges are the school not having a library where students can have their private studies and borrow books; there is also no school laboratory to do science lessons; there are not enough teaching personnel; there is also the major cost of firewood for cooking which is a strain on the school administration.
There is much that has been done to improve the school. In 2008, the Ol Pejeta Conservancy supported the school with 10,000 textbooks and has also put it in their strategic plan. PA-MOJA purchased a water tank and the Parent/Teacher Association has also enabled the school to have electricity.
Great to hear from Tharua. Looks like there is a lot that can still be done!
Cheers
Neil Bryson
Am grateful for the efforts you are putting in place to see the development of Tharua sec. school and working towards giving it a brighter future. May God bless you abundantly in every angle. Am a product of this school and am proud of it. God bless you. God bless Tharua .