THIS PETION IS CLOSED ON THIS SITE, Please visit  WWW.LENANA.ORG for the ongoing campaign. Thank you for your time. 

PETITION
We, the undersigned, join the Alumni of Lenana School formerly Duke of York School, in calling for Education Minster, Hon. Prof Sam Ongeri, to use his regulatory authority to reconstitute the leadership team currently in place at Lenana; namely the Principal and board of governors. What we as alumni of Lenana are looking for is a Sustainable Success Model that addresses the current state of decay and rot at this once very great African school. We are requesting that swift action is taken by you to stop this school from further sliding into total dysfunction and consequent closure.

The Honorable Prof Sam Ongeri
Minister of Education
Jogoo House ‘B’, Harambee Avenue,
P.O. Box 30040, NAIROBI

Dear Prof. Sam Ongeri,

We applaud the Department of Education, and the Administration for your continued focus on education, particularly on the need to improve the nation’s lowest-performing schools as well as increasing the access to secondary school to many children of Kenya who otherwise would not have their dreams of higher education realized. Every day, hundreds of thousands of students across the country attend schools that lack critical resources necessary to ensure that students can succeed and thrive and unfortunately that is the case at Lenana School.
For the last 3 decades, the spirit and ethos of Lenana has slowly eroded away and given way to new ways that have not produced the desired student success that was synonymous with the institution. Lenana was an institution endowed with many resources and goodwill from the government, parents, alumni, well wishers and the surrounding community. Today, it’s a pale shadow of what was one of the best educational institutions in Africa. We shall outline some of the obvious and easily identifiable issues that currently plague Lenana.

Leadership
We recently had a fire burn down one of the dormitories during school break, while the investigation is still pending; there is speculation that it was an electrical fault. This happened even though the old boys had on several occasions (meetings/visits to the school) flagged that the safety of the students from bare and loose hanging electrical wires/circuits had been compromised. Simply, there seems to be lack of initiative from the school administration to address what is obviously a very dangerous environment for the students. As we speak, more dormitories and other school buildings are in similar condition, simply waiting for a disaster to happen.

Discipline
The current student discipline at the school is appalling. Stealing amongst students is common, lack of respect for teachers and adults is evident, personal discipline is quite evidently not being instilled, natured and hence immature. Although this emanates from lack of proper structures of the school administration, we must act now or we will continue to breed social misfits in what is supposed to be one of the flagship institutions on the continent.

Dilapidated infrastructure
We cannot emphasize this issue anymore than already has been done not only by us but also highlighted by the media during the Mashujaa day when government officials and foreign dignitaries visited the school in 2010. Whilst most of the buildings are quite old, it’s quite clear that neglect and lack maintenance has accelerated the dilapidation of the buildings. We still believe that with proper maintenance being done on these buildings, we may turn what is unsafe and unhygienic to habitable environments where students can live, thrive and succeed. Better evidence is witnessed from the project the alumni undertook to renovate one of the houses at our expense. While we were unable to complete all the repairs as we wished due to constant interference to our works and schedule, the work that we did undertake and complete has been touted as the benchmark for all future repairs at the school. Quite sadly, the repairs undertaken by the school since have not mirrored the promise to meet or exceed the standards set by the alumni project undertaken. The works we accomplished were also done in a transparent, very efficient matter and we believe this spirit should be the basis of making sure the infrastructure at Lenana regains its status to be the best in the continent.

Academic decline and Lack of extracurricular activities/sports
As Lenana is a national school, it selects its students from the best out there in the country. Most if not all of the students coming in are in the A grade category. Unfortunately, a few years later, when they leave after their senior year, most of these students are in the B grade category. Something is clearly amiss here, this trend must stop. Lenana should once again be competitive producing the best students in the world who will lead and tackle Africa’s challenges. A common complaint by students surveyed indicates that on several occasions, they miss classes due to many absent teachers who do not even make up for time lost while they were out of the classroom. It begs to wonder where the school leadership is, gross dereliction of duty.
The term “all rounder” was a signature Lenana trademark. That simply means that students were expected to excel in more than just their education. The student academic calendar was strict and structured in a way that introduced the student to various activities throughout the calendar year. This extracurricular activities helped to develop and nature their God given talents. Currently, sports and extracurricular activities at Lenana are all but dead. It is common place to see students loitering all over the school compound without purpose during games time and other free time. The list here is endless yet we know the advantages offered by exposing young minds to these extracurricular activities.

Safety and hygiene
The dormitories are dirty, trash everywhere; under the beds, in the dorm closet etc. The classrooms and even the Chapel are in a similar state, begs to wonder if there are no longer inspections conducted to make sure the school environment is clean and safe for the students. There is also broken plumbing in several dormitories discharging water and sewer onto the floors etc.
It is on record that Lenana in recent years has had communicable disease outbreaks which are not a wonder considering the lack of hygiene not only in the living quarters but also from a personal hygiene stand point.
The safety concern is real, blocked exit doors, bare electrical wiring, exposure to asbestos roof from worn/missing ceiling boards etc, the list is endless. These are issues that need to be addresses as soon as possible to ensure not only the safety of the students but also their health wellness.

Conclusion
While Lenana School requires structural change, we believe that structural change is not sufficient to create lasting improvement. Real, sustainable change must be built, brick-by-brick, from the top-down, ground-up.

A Sustainable Success Model is one that ties Lenana School to all its stake holders and well wishers. The Sustainable Success Model requires the Ministry of education to make a deep and lasting commitment to Lenana school improvement. It requires:
1) undertake a comprehensive needs assessment—led by parents, school administration, ministry representative, teachers and alumni — so that local solutions are tailored to local problems,
2) transform the schools instructional program and structure through the implementation of research-based strategies,
3) Address essential social, emotional and physical needs of students, and
4) Recognize parent, student and community leadership as key to sustainable student success. We believe that this Sustainable Success Model offers the promise of comprehensive and lasting improvement in one of our nation’s most troubled National schools.

Implementing the Sustainable Success Model with fidelity will not be easy. In fact, this model demands that the Lenana school community (school admin, parents, teachers and alumni) work together to assess our school’s unique challenges, design and implement a new academic culture that reflects our past success model and includes extended time and rigorous instructional strategies. Cobble this strategy together with a network of supports to meet the social, medical and academic needs of its students and the entire Lenana community.
Creating lasting change in one of our nation’s most troubled schools is a difficult challenge. We know that you, the Ministry and the Administration are deeply committed to change. We respectfully request that you consider using your power to initiate the Sustainable Success Model into regulation, and allow Lenana School to take on the process of demanding, comprehensive reform to bring back the honor of this great African school.

THIS PETION IS CLOSED ON THIS SITE, Please visit  WWW.LENANA.ORG for the ongoing campaign. Thank you for your time.