Why schools face closure or merger over low Grade 10 enrollment
By Aloys Michael, January 21, 2026Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has indicated that certain schools could be closed or merged because of low Grade 10 enrollment, emphasising the need to focus resources on institutions that draw enough students and comply with constitutional requirements.
The announcement comes amid rising concern over uneven student distribution, where a handful of high-performing schools face overwhelming demand while many others continue to struggle with low enrollment.
Speaking on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, during the Elimu Mashinani forum at Lavington Primary School, the CS said the ministry is analysing data from the ongoing placement exercise to determine which schools have insufficient students and require consolidation.
“Let me start by saying the Grade nine students had a choice of 12 schools. They were to do the best of three in C1, best of three in C2, best of three in C3, and best of three in C4, and the system was placing these students in the schools of their choice. In other words, if the students did not choose your school, the system would not place them in your school,” Ogamba said.
The education boss explained that the placement system reflects student choices, and schools with very low or no enrolment cannot continue operating effectively, adding that some schools were receiving overwhelming applications, with more than 50,000 students competing for only 700 vacancies, while others had virtually no applicants.
Moreover, Ogamba said the disparity is causing overcrowding in popular schools and leaving other institutions largely underused.
“These numbers and this data are telling us a story. We have been holding up schools that do not need to survive. When we finish with the placement, we will determine which schools do not receive any students. Remember, we do not have Form Two yet, so they will be remaining with only Form Three and Form Four. What then are we supposed to do?” he posed.
“What this means for us as a ministry is to sit down and decide: should we continue holding these schools as schools, or should we invest more in the schools that the students require so that they can have all the facilities?”
Crackdown on schools?
The CS stressed that it is impractical to maintain schools with very few students.
“There would be no point in having a school with 10 children, where you have a headmaster, a classroom, a watchman and a teacher. It does not make sense. We need schools that have all the facilities with the right number of students. We do not need 10 schools in a place with 1,000 students, while one school has only 100 children,” he said.
The CS also highlighted that the ministry is committed to constitutional standards, particularly Article 53, and will avoid maintaining “patriotic schools” built for name sake rather than functional learning.
“Let this be a school called my name, or my late mom, which is not a school. We need the support of all Kenyans, including parents, in making these decisions,” he said.
On teacher deployment, he added that once the ministry finalises data on schools with low or uneven enrolment, it will redistribute teachers to institutions that need them.
“Once the ministry has given us the data on the schools that are not having the correct enrolments, we will be calling out the balancing of the teachers to put them in the schools with the required numbers so that teaching can continue effectively,” he said.