Scores Of Students Yet To Be Admitted To Form 1 As Magoha Urges Principals To ‘Demand’ School Fees Later

KAKAMEGA, Kenya, May, 8 – Education Cabinet Secretary Professor George Magoha has urged Principals of Secondary schools to accept all students who have been admitted regardless of whether they have enough school fees or not.

He at the same time asked parents to enroll their children in schools with the money they have as they look for more funds while observing that a number of students have not yet been reported.

Magoha, while speaking at Kakamega High School also advised parents not to be worried about changing the admission of their children to other schools which they deem are better than others.

“The government has provided enough facilities and funds to schools with competent teachers to provide the same quality of education that will guarantee a better future for your children so don’t rush to seek admission in other schools,” he noted.

On government scholarship, Professor Magoha said President Uhuru Kenyatta directed the Ministry to focus on the children in the slums and those who are from extremely poor families.

“In this regard, for the last two years we have issued 18000 scholarships to children from vulnerable families,” he noted.

He said that officials from the Ministry of Education are set to identify students to benefit from the government’s 9000 scholarships this year that will cater for their four years of secondary education.

“My instructions to principals are very simple, once you identify a child from a vulnerable family, you must admit them and facilitate the child with a uniform and other materials as the government works to provide scholarships for them,” he directed.

The CS also asked principals to balance between admitting students to form one and ensuring registration for the three Nationals exams of Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA), Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education is completed on time.

“The government is concerned and what we want is correct details for us to know the exact number of students who will sit for the national exams,” he noted.

He regretted that principals and headteachers have not been keen on registering students for the national exams warning that the registration exercise won’t be extended beyond the 14th of this month.

“I commend Kapsabet Boys High School for registering all its 487 students while Kakamega Primary school has already registered 560 children for KCPE and more than 1000 for KPSEA,” he said.