PCEA church schools across our Presbytery began the same way many of our congregations did — with mothers teaching a handful of children because there was nowhere else to take them. Muteero’s church school started in 1981 in a borrowed classroom; Lang’ata PCEA Primary School began in 1992 as a nursery with five pupils and one teacher and has since grown into a full primary and secondary school with 600 pupils and 45 teachers. Church nursery schools were established across multiple congregations in the same era — Nairobi West in 1990, Kuwinda in 1990, Muteero effectively from its founding — reflecting a consistent PCEA conviction that Christian education starts young.
Long before any of our congregations built a permanent sanctuary, several of them had already started teaching children. The story of PCEA education in this Presbytery is, in a real sense, the story of mothers who refused to let distance keep their children from learning the Word of God.
Muteero: A School Born of Necessity
The story of Muteero Church School began in 1981, when the pioneering families first settled at Muteero. The mothers among them, with small children too young for the long trip to PCEA Bahati Church or PCEA St. Andrew’s, faced a simple problem: there was no facility at their own new church site yet. They approached Mr. Gitome, owner of Maasai Girls School, and secured the use of a classroom. While the fathers travelled to serve in their own churches, the mothers stayed behind, teaching the children the Word of God themselves.
The pioneer teachers were Mrs. Gladys Kariuki, Mrs. Elizabeth Riunga, Mrs. Ann Maina, and Mrs. G. Kimondo — who also served as the first Church School Superintendent. Over the decades, more than twenty additional teachers have joined that founding team, carrying the school into the present with sixteen current teachers, from Wandia Mutura and Harriet Wangai (the school’s current Chairperson) to Elder Emily Wagema and Elder Mwangi Murigu. As the school’s own record puts it, echoing the same verse the parish’s Woman’s Guild has adopted: “The LORD is our Ebenezer. This far He has brought us.”
Lang’ata: From Five Pupils to a Full School
Lang’ata PCEA Primary School tells the same story at a larger scale. It began in 1992 as a nursery school with just five pupils and one teacher. Today it is a full primary and secondary school with 600 pupils, 45 teachers, and 12 support staff. Over the years the school has added sports and games, an active ICT centre, library facilities, swimming lessons, music lessons, a Scouts movement, and affordable transport for pupils — with expansion still ongoing. Its first candidates sat the KCPE exam in 2013.
Christian Education Runs Deeper Than One School
At Lang’ata Parish, the school itself sits inside a wider Christian Education Committee, whose job is to plan, coordinate, and report on all group learning and training across the parish — including giving talks in Teens classes and running Theological Education by Extension (TEE), both within the church and, notably, extended to and sponsored for those in prison. The Committee has graduated many students through TEE, from certificate level up to higher diploma.
The parish’s own Church School programme — distinct from, but feeding into, the full primary school — is organized into age clusters: a crèche for children under two who sit with their parents, an introduction-to-God curriculum for ages 3–4, Bible-character lessons for ages 7–9, and scripture memorization for pre-teens aged 10–12, before graduating into the Ropes mentorship programme as they approach their teens. Enrolment has grown rapidly to around 160 children.
A Pattern That Repeats Across the Presbytery
Nursery and church schools recur throughout the founding stories we’ve told in this series — not as isolated projects, but as a consistent conviction. PCEA Nairobi West’s own history records a Nursery School Project launched in March 1990. PCEA Kuwinda’s Church Nursery was established the same year, 1990. At PCEA Kuwinda, the Rev. Kahahu Memorial Centre was purpose-built as a nursery school before it ever became a vestry or dispensary. And in 1987, when the old Lang’ata Parish brought together its four founding congregations — Lang’ata, Nairobi West, Muteero, and Kuwinda — each one started its own Early Childhood nursery class as part of that unification.
Whether the school in question is a single borrowed classroom or a 600-pupil institution with its own ICT centre, the underlying motive has never changed: children learning the Word of God, taught by the members closest to them, starting as early as possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did PCEA church schools in this Presbytery begin?
The earliest recorded example is Muteero’s church school, dating to 1981 — the same year the congregation itself began. Formal nursery school projects followed across several congregations around 1990, and Lang’ata PCEA Primary School grew from a five-pupil nursery in 1992 into today’s 600-pupil institution.
How is a church school different from a parish’s Sunday church school programme?
Some congregations, like Lang’ata, run both: a full registered primary (and secondary) school open to the wider community, alongside a separate, age-clustered church school programme that operates during or around Sunday worship for children in the congregation.
What is Theological Education by Extension (TEE)?
A structured programme, run through Lang’ata Parish’s Christian Education Committee, offering theological training from certificate through higher diploma level — including sponsorship for students within the prison system.
Final Thoughts
Every full-sized institution began as an act of necessity by a handful of mothers, a borrowed classroom, and a conviction that children shouldn’t wait to learn about God. From five pupils in 1992 to six hundred today, from a shade-tree classroom to a full ICT centre — the growth is real, but the motive underneath it has stayed exactly the same since 1981.
Want to Learn More About Our Church Schools?
Reach out to the Presbytery office for information on church schools and Christian education programmes near you.
Historical details in this article are drawn from PCEA Milimani South Presbytery’s own published ministry and parish records. Compiled by the Editorial Desk.