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Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha yesterday warned parents against taking shortcuts to secure Form One places in national schools.

Magoha said he will personally take charge of the Form One selection process to ensure a credible process.

He dismissed the scramble for places in leading national schools saying all learners cannot fit in the institutions and will have to be spread out.

Best brains

A majority of traditional national schools received overwhelming applications despite the limited slots available.

“For those bombarding me with requests, stop wasting my time. My gold standard is that poor child and we will make sure they go to school and are issued with a scholarship.

I want the people to get us very clear, that being poor does not mean God did not give you a good brain so money does not buy everything,” said Magoha.

He made the remarks yesterday when he supervised completion of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination at Nairobi School.

“I will be fully in charge of Form One selection. We want a system that will pick the best brains say from Kiandutu slums in Thika and take them to Alliance.

They do not have to come from private school or a wealthy family to go to certain schools. That will not be allowed to happen,” he said.

Magoha warned people who he said were collecting money with the promise of placing students in specific schools that they would be dealt with accordingly. 

“Let it not be traced to you for taking money to place learners in certain schools,” he warned, citing an individual who he said took Sh315,000 with the promise of securing a child a place in Alliance High School.

Ministry of Education officials are expected to take a retreat in Naivasha next week to work out modalities  for the selection process.

Top candidates

It is expected that all the candidates who scored 400 marks out of the possible 500 marks will be admitted to a national school.

All top candidates in every sub-county will also get slots in national schools.

Some 8,091 candidates scored above 400 marks compared to 9,673 in 2019. There were 282,090 students who scored between 300  and 399 compared to 242,821 in 2019 while 589,027 scored between 200 and 299 compared to 566,069 in 2019.  Last week, Magoha said the selection will be conducted on May 28.