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Irene Githinji @gitshee

More than 1.2 million candidates who sat the 2020 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination fought for limited places in just 15 elite secondary schools, it emerged yesterday.

The outcome of the form one selection exercise released yesterday by Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha revealed that Nanyuki High School in Laikipia County attracted the highest number of applicants, a whopping 154,524 applications, against a limited capacity of 384 learners.

The second most selected school was Kabianga High in Kericho County, which saw 142,640 against a capacity of 480, followed by Pangani Girls with 124,982 applicants against 384 slots while the fourth was Nyandarua High with 123,976 applications against 288 places available.

Alliance Girls came a fifth with 105,053 applications but has space for only 384 Form One students.

Others that had high applications were Maseno School, Nakuru High, Kapsabet Boys, Butere Girls, Mbooni Girls, Alliance High School, Kisumu Girls, Nakuru High and Moi Girls Eldoret, in that order.

Academic giants

The overwhelming attraction to lesser known schools such as Nanyuki High, Kabianga, Nyandarua High and Mbooni Girls over traditional academic giants such as Alliance High School, Mangu High, Maseno School, Nairobi School, Kenya High, Pangani and many others left senior Education ministry officials baffled, given the fact that they were not among the leading schools in the last two Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations.

“We noted that there were some secondary schools that attracted far many applicants when their capacities were far lower,” Prof Magoha said while releasing the Form One selection and placement results at Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).

The selection results pattern has left senior ministry officials puzzled and plans are underway for a fact-finding mission to also empower learners to make selections from across the country.

During the selection, Magoha said it emerged that a big number of candidates did not receive proper guidance and direction when choosing schools.

Affirmative action

“For instance, we were dismayed by one school whose almost entire class of candidates selected the same secondary schools, and in the same order,” he said.

He said selecting a similar school as it happened borders on carelessness on the part of the school, since it made many candidates miss their preferred schools because it is impossible to select more than five learners from the same primary school.

We wish to call upon head teachers and parents to ensure candidates make wise choices through proper advice. I also direct my relevant ministry officials to mount proper sensitisation programmes on the Form One selection process,” the CS directed.

The CS said that in placing candidates in secondary schools, the Ministry of Education had strictly applied the principles of equity, fairness, merit, inclusiveness and affirmative action.

Magoha said, 36,254 candidates will be joining national schools, 201,077 will go to extra county schools, 213,591 will go to county schools while the bulk of the candidates, totalling 718,516, will join sub-county schools.

This brings the total number of those placed to 1,171,275 out of the 1.2 million who sat the KCPE exam.

In the placement, majority of candidates who scored 400 marks and above were placed in national or extra county schools of their choice.

Magoha said special needs candidates were placed in the regular schools of their preference, while others were placed in special schools based on their disability categories in merit and choices.

As far as affirmative action in slums is concerned, the CS said the ministry moved a notch higher by opening up more opportunities for a number of children from the areas.

Through this, the ministry managed to place an additional 667 learners from slums in urban areas in national and extra-county schools.

The slums identified under the arrangement are in Thika, Nyeri, Kisumu, Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru and Eldoret urban centres.

“This intervention is in line with the directive by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s rallying call that we consider needy and vulnerable children in informal settlements in urban areas,” the CS said.

The 2020 KCPE candidates will constitute the third cohort of students to be admitted to secondary schools under the government’s policy of 100 per cent transition.

He, however, admitted there have been challenges in keeping learners in school once they are admitted to the institutions. 

Some of the reasons for this include insecurity in some parts of the country, teenage pregnancies, long distances to school, and poverty; a situation that is expected to get worse as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As we strive to do our part in the provision of education, I urge leaders to continue supporting us in addressing some of these challenges.

As has been the case over the last three years, we will continue working with the ministry of Interior to facilitate the enrollment of every child in secondary school to actualise the 100 per cent transition,” he added.

Infrastructure funds

He urged schools to utilise the fees guidelines showing how much parents are required to pay per category of school.

“I will lead senior ministry officials on a nationwide monitoring exercise to ensure Form One students are joining the schools they were selected to and that fee guidelines are strictly adhered to.

Parents are, therefore, advised to only pay the amount of fees set by the ministry and report incidents of any student turned away,” he said.

On school infrastructure and resources, the CS said the National Treasury had allocated the ministry Sh4.2 billion for infrastructure development in public primary and secondary schools.

This includes Sh1.9 billion for desks and chairs for  public primary and secondary schools which will be procured and distributed in the same manner as was done in the current financial year.

“These funds will effectively be used to ease the strain on school facilities due to the increased enrollment,” he said.

The ministry set August 2 as the reporting date for all 2021 Form Ones.