Students who sat the 2020 KCPE exam will from next week know which secondary schools they have been admitted to. The Form one selection team began work in Naivasha County on Friday under the supervision of the Education and ICT ministries.
Prof. Magoha said the exercise is ongoing and before June 15, students will start receiving admission letters. All national and extra county schools will are expected to get at least 300 students.
All the 8,091 candidates who scored 400 marks and above in the 2020 KCPE examination will find places in national schools. The selection of candidates to national and extra county schools will be based on merit, their school choices, and the capacity of respective schools.
According to the Ministry, 1.18 million candidates wrote the 2020 KCPE examination. Data available shows that there are 33,009 slots in national schools, 184,816 slots in extra-county schools, and 188,454 in county schools. Sub-county schools have 669,145 slots while special needs education schools have 777
This means the day schools will carry the burden of admission, with more than half of the 2020 candidates expected to join them. This will include a big share of the 586,886 candidates who scored between 201 and 300 marks and 262,307 candidates who had between 101 and 200 marks.
Two months ago the Education CS Magoha warned Principals of national schools against meddling with the Form 1 selection exercise. According to the Ministry, the schools are accused of pre-selecting their form one class before the National Form one Selection process.
“The purpose of this letter is to ask you to inform the Principals of the listed schools in your jurisdiction to ensure that they only pre-select candidates who have chosen their schools as per the KNEC database.
The National Selection process will overlook the pre-selection of such candidates and place them in schools of their choice and on merit if this instruction is not adhered to,” said the Ministry through a circular.
The schools targeted in this crackdown are; Starehe Boys Centre – (Nairobi), Starehe Girls – (Nairobi), Moi Forces Academy – (Nairobi), Moi Forces – Lanet – (Nakuru), Utumishi Academy – (Nakuru), Utumishi Girls – (Nakuru) and Moi Tea Girls – (Kericho).
In May, Magoha assured every candidate will get a place in a secondary school as he announced the results at the Kenya National Examination Council headquarters.
“We are determined to work with the relevant agencies to ensure that no candidate misses a place in secondary school,” Magoha said. This will push the number of the secondary school population from the current 2.8 million to about 3.2 million.
The institutions will also be grappling with the management of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has necessitated a rethinking of spacing at learning institutions.
In the 2020 KCPE, 8,091 candidates qualified for admission to national schools by scoring 400 marks and above. The 300-400 marks category has 290,181 candidates. More than 100,000 scored less than 300 marks and this accounts for the category most likely to fall out of the 100% transition rate
The CS was speaking at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) on Monday during the handing over ceremony of the Agricultural Laboratory Building Annex to the University.
“We have ensured that there is absolute fairness in Form one selection especially for intelligent and poor children from slum areas. By mid this month, all students who sat for KCPE will know the secondary schools that they have been called to pursue their education,” he said.
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