27/01/2024
Counsellor- Tabitha K. Mburugu, HSC, DSM
A licensed counselling psychologist (MA) and renowned administrator with over 40 years experience in Education Administration, Guidance and Counselling, Institutional Reforms and Management, Ms. Mburugu, a Management in Education and Administration graduate from Kenyatta University, started her long journey to the top at St. Angela’s Girls Secondary School in 1972.
Due to her exemplary performance she was transferred to the then struggling Machakos Girls’
High School in 1985. A school that was struggling under insurmountable debt was the pride of Eastern Province by the time of her retirement in 2004.
That is where she proved her real mantle. So complete and dramatic was the turn around that hardly a year passed without the then Head of State paying the school a visit.
A modern computer lab, a new administration block, thirty units of teacher’s houses, new and
well-equipped classrooms, modern well-spaced dormitories, a borehole, a school van, two
school buses and a tarmac road leading to the school are some of the hallmarks of her
revolution.
It was not a surprise therefore that in the 1990’s she won the best Head Teacher’s award and
numerous awards for best improved school among others. In 1998 she was awarded the
Distinguished Service Medal (DSM). This was a follow-up to the Prestigious Head of State
Commendation (HSC) awarded to her by then Head of State H.E Daniel Arap Moi in 1993.
These awards did not fall from the sky. Machakos Girls’ High School had established itself as the
undisputed leader in eastern province winning everything from music, drama, sports and
academic excellence. And as a pointer to the kind of mentor Tabitha was to her teaching staff,
more than half of her staff and a number of students are today successful School Principals,
Deputies and various industry leaders.
Ms. Mburugu is imbued with lofty ideas of nationalism, rationalism, freedom and democracy.
Her contribution to the field of education is not only massive but also remarkable when viewed
in historical perspective.
Being a dynamic and visionary educationist, she realized the importance of education not only
in terms of eradicating poverty, illiteracy and gender bias from our societies but also wanted to
use education as an effective tool for social change and rapid economic growth. She played a
significant role in reshaping, restructuring and reorganizing the education system of the two
giant secondary schools she served as Principal in her 32 years of Distinguished Service.
A critical analysis of her contributions, leadership and management in education and other
related fields, reveals that she was in favor of a Four-Fold national education system with the
following main objectives:
The provision of Basic Education on a Universal, Free And Compulsory basis for all our School going children; The provision of Adult Education in order to wipe out the colossal illiteracy of our older generations; The improvement and expansion of technical education in order to solve the problem of manpower for industrial and technical
development and the reorganization and improvement of university education from a national point of view.
In regard to School Education, Ms. Mburugu advocated that the reform of school education was even more important and urgent. Until schools improve, University Education will continue to remain unsatisfactory. Indeed the wealth of a nation is not tied to its economic strength but in its schools and quality of education. Of the various stages of school education, the one which is in most urgent need of reform is that of secondary education. A field Ms. Mburugu has excelled in management for 32 years.
Ms. Mburugu has always been guided by the three most highly coveted professional values in
Public Service as envisioned in her work over the years; the values of Responsibility, Integrity
and Accountability.
