All learners will transit to Form One, says Magoha
By Irene Githinji, May 18, 2021
Irene Githinji @gitshee
Senior officials from the Education and Information and Communication ministries retreated to Naivasha yesterday to lay the ground for the Form One selection process.
The team is expected to ensure a watertight criteria is developed, including setting quota and acceptable formula, which will subsequently see fair placement to secondary schools for candidates who sat the 2020 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE).
The first candidates to be placed are those expected to join national schools followed by extra-county then county and sub-county schools.
Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha has assured all the 1,179,192 candidates who sat the exam will be admitted to secondary schools under the government’s 100 per cent transition policy.
“I wish to assure the country that the ministry has already conducted an audit of all new and existing vacancies in all our private and public schools to enable us to admit all learners under the Free Day Secondary Education programme,” said the CS when he released KCPE results last month.
He said the government is determined to work with relevant agencies to ensure no candidate misses a place in secondary school.
“To ensure all candidates are placed in schools of their choice – based on performance and available vacancies – the Ministry will employ a water-tight system that will be both credible and of high integrity.
The actual Form One selection exercise for all categories of schools will take place from May 28,” said Magoha.
All the 8,091 candidates who scored 400 marks and above are expected to join national schools.
Various categories
Some 282,090 others scored between 300 – 399, another 589,027 scored between 200 and 299, another 299,677 candidates scored between 100-199 while 307 others scored 01 – 99 marks out of the possible 500 marks and will be expected to join various categories of schools.
The students are expected to join Form One in July, when the 2021 education calendar will start.
The CS said he would personally take charge of the Form One selection to ensure due process is followed.
The minister dismissed the rush by parents to have their children secure slots in coveted national schools, saying all learners cannot fit in specific institutions and will have to be spread out.