St. Mary’s Girls High School Igoji is a national girls’ secondary school located in Meru County. The roots of the institution trace back to 1907, when the late Edward Butler Horne arrived in Meru as the District Commissioner.
Known to the local community as “Kangangi” due to his habit of wandering widely across the region, Horne granted the United Methodist Church territorial rights in Meru. This allowed the Church to establish its first mission station at Kagaa in 1912, soon followed by early attempts to mobilize children for schooling.
Formal education during this period was initially targeted at boys, with the concept of “kusoma”—the Kiswahili term for reading—becoming synonymous with Christianity, as the two were tightly linked in early missionary work.
Igoji Girls history
The push for structured education for girls came later, culminating in the founding of St. Mary’s High School, Igoji, on April 11, 1943. The school was established by the Consolata Sisters as an intermediate institution for girls on a five-acre parcel of land donated by the local community.
Many of the original buildings from this early period still stand today, including the kitchen, the classic dining hall, dormitories, and classrooms.
These structures are characterized by walls constructed from chisel-dressed stone, roofs covered with corrugated iron sheets, wooden casement windows fitted with wire mesh, and doors crafted from timber match-boarding—a testament to the architecture of the era.
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The school’s A-level stream was phased out in 1989 following the nationwide transition to the 8-4-4 education system. Admission criteria thereafter shifted to performance in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE). This was later replaced by the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
Today, St. Mary’s Girls Igoji has grown into a modern, highly competitive national school that hosts over 1,000 students. The institution was elevated to national status in 2012, a recognition earned through sustained excellence in academics.
Each year, over 200 students are admitted based on academic merit and their placement choices, in accordance with national education policy.
KCSE performance
Igoji Girls has maintained a strong reputation for academic excellence and consistently ranks among Kenya’s top 100 schools in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). In the 2024 KCSE examination, the school presented 364 candidates and posted commendable results.
The class of 2024 did not record any straight As, but it produced 20 A- grades, reflecting strong performance at the top end. In the upper-grade bracket, the students scored 61 B+ grades and 101 B grades, demonstrating a solid academic foundation across the cohort.
Additionally, 108 students earned B-, while 51 scored C+, rounding off the school’s higher-achieving segment. In the mid-tier grades, the school registered 18 C grades and 4 C- grades, while 1 student attained a D+. No student scored a plain D.
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Overall, St. Mary’s Girls Igoji achieved a mean score of 8.4945. It was, however, a slight drop from the 8.8392 mean score recorded by the school’s 2023 KCSE candidates.
School fees
Recognized as a Cluster Four (IV) national school, the school is among a select group of institutions designated by the Ministry of Education for its exceptional infrastructure, academic performance, and human resource capacity. It is the only girls’ national school in Meru County.
The Ministry of Education, through its 2020 guidelines, categorized national schools into four clusters, each with specified annual fee limits. Igoji Girls falls under Cluster IV, with an official annual fee cap of approximately Ksh75,798 per student.
However, actual fees may slightly vary depending on additional levies approved by the school’s Board of Management (BoM).
These may cover costs such as school uniforms, co-curricular activities, motivational programs, and infrastructure development projects. All adjustments are made in line with government policy and MoE regulations.
Location and contacts
The school is located in Igoji, Imenti South Sub-County, Meru County, approximately 31 kilometres south of Meru town.
If you have any complaints, queries, or comments, you can contact the institution’s administration through the details below.
Email address: [email protected]
Postal address: P.O. Box 38-60402 Igoji
St. Mary’s Girls High School, Igoji KNEC code: 15300012
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