Grown out of a Mission station founded in 1914 and run by the Marist Brothers, Kutama has a student population of about 700 pupils.

Kutama College was ranked 26th out of the top 100 best high schools in Africa by Africa Almanac in 2017, based on quality of education, student engagement, strength and activities of alumni, school profile, internet and news visibility.

Founded prior to the Second World War by English Jesuit Priests at the request of Bishop Aston Chichester, Kutama was one of the first institutions to offer high school education to students of African descent in colonial Rhodesia.

Its Jesuit origins are reflected in its official name, St Francis Xavier College.

The school's first headmaster was Father Jerome O'Hea, an Irish-born priest after whom the local mission hospital is named.