Why Your Child May Have Missed Out On Their Dream Secondary School

NAIROBI, Kenya, 11 – All the 1,225,502 candidates that sat their 2021 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams have secured positions in secondary schools across the country.

And in line with the government’s 100 per cent transition policy, no child will be denied access to secondary school education.

Amidst the progressive and good news, scores of learners are still said to have missed out on being placed in their school of choice. Education Cabinet Secretary Professor George Magoha cited ‘a lack of guidance’ for candidates from teachers and parents alike.

According to Magoha, some schools reportedly attracted far too many applicants against their current capacities.

“During the selection, as was the case last year, it became clear to us that a big number of candidates did not receive proper guidance and direction when choosing schools,” he said.

Though it has long been a ministry policy to attempt to place candidates in their school of choice, this time, despite observing the strictly applied principles of merit, choice, and equity in placing candidates in each school category, the exercise proved slightly difficult.

In the placement, the majority of candidates who scored 400 marks and above were however still placed in National or Extra County schools of their choice.

The Special Needs candidates were also placed in the regular schools of their preference, while others were placed in special schools based on their disability categories, on merit, and choice.

“In this year’s selection, just like last year, we have applied the affirmative action provision by opening opportunities for a number of children from slums. The candidates were placed first, thus guaranteeing them their first choices in national schools. Through this, we managed to place 567 learners in their first-choice national schools. Further intervention was done by giving an additional 314 places in National and Extra County schools,” said Magoha.

The slums identified under this arrangement were from Thika, Nyeri, Kisumu, Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, and Eldoret urban centers.

“With such interventions, a candidate like Kimberly Grace with 368 marks From Mji wa Huruma slums is joining The Kenya High school. Grace is just one among many similar cases,” said the CS.

There are concerted efforts from stakeholders within the education sector to avoid a repeat of the same which was also cited as a source of concern in recent years.

The education ministry is expected to set up proper sensitization programmes on the Form One selection process.

Even as some schools are praised to have gone out of their way to expand capacity in support of the 100 per cent transition policy, such as St. Albert Ulanda Girls and Sironga Girls which are expected to admit 864 and 816 candidates respectively – Some counties are said to pose certain challenges when it comes to placement due to inadequate capacities according to their candidature.

“I call upon all leaders from those areas to address the perennial deficit in capacity. I commend Kilifi and Kwale for addressing their deficit this year. The Ministry has placed a number of learners in boarding schools outside of their counties due to these deficits.” Said Magoha.

The form one students are now expected to report to school in May, 3,2022.