Form 1 Students That ‘Changed’ Schools After Gov’t Placement Now Face Challenges

MACHAKOS, Kenya, May, 5 – Scores of students expected to join form one are now stuck in limbo after changing the schools they were placed to initially by the ministry of education after citing ‘finding’ an alternative.

According to Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KESSHA) chairperson Kahi Indimuli, who is also the principal of Machakos High School,  parents are now crying foul over their children failing to secure admission to secondary school.

For instance, in Machakos High School, where 530 form one students were placed through the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) to the school, all learners are set to be fully admitted even as some parents who changed schools for their children now seek admission.

“Those who attempt to change students (to the admitted in other schools), parents have been moving up and down wanting to change their children from one school to another, in some cases, some parents have processed their children in other schools but now they have come, but now when you tell them the system indicates this child has been taken to another school and this must have happened because of your request, they play the fool, they are surprised,” said Indimuli.

The KESSHA boss said that it was impossible for learners’ details to be altered through NEMIS without the parent’s involvement in terms of changing schools for their children.

“Process starts with a parent going to that school, placing in that request,  providing details, telephone numbers ID number and then the principal of that school ’B’ makes a formal request to the ministry of education and once they approve they remove the child from school ‘A’ and transfer them to school B,” he said.

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 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,”

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