Thirst for knowledge: Kirenga Girls students attend a computer class in their ICT room. The room only has 9 functioning computers which are too few for the school population of over 300 girls. This, however, will soon be a problem of the past since Fireside Group has committed to setting up a proper modern ICT lab at the school.
Kirenga Girls High School has come a long way in facilitating the exposure of its students to technology. The school currently has an ICT room which is surprising, given the school's remote location within the interior Lari Constituency in Kiambu County. The ICT facility at the institution, however, needs expansion to cater for the 300 enrolled students.
The ICT room only has nine computers which serve the entire school population. Expansion of the facility through a Fireside Group initiative to donate more computers and put up a proper computer lab will have numerous benefits to Kirenga Girls, including enabling the students to take Computer Studies as an examinable subject in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination. In the 2017 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination, the school registered a dismal mean score of 2.8.
The Principal believes that the new computers will help students at the school perform better in their studies by allowing them to access educational internet databases that will complement their classwork. Further, the computers will give the students exposure to technology as they prepare to join institutions of higher learning where the use of technology is inevitable. This is in line with the school's mission to enhance the acquisition of the girl child for national development.
Kirenga Girls: Living conditions
Students at Kirenga Girls High School come from needy families. The major economic activity in Kirenga is farming and in some families, income earned from farming is supplemented by sale of curios at the nearby escarpment viewpoints.
Carrot farming is one of the major horticultural activities in the area and is done by parents, with the help of their daughters in the evening after school. With the skills and exposure that the girls at the school will receive through the Fireside Group computers donation project, they will be better positioned to become innovative and economically independent individuals, as outlined in the school's vision to provide and promote quality education that will enhance the acquisition of positive attitudes, values, and skills for self-reliance.
