Some students who scored 400 marks and above in the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examinations have missed slots in national schools and will instead be placed in public sub-county secondary schools.
While the Ministry of Education placed all the 1.4 million eligible students to public secondary schools as per the government's policy on 100 per cent transition, thousands have not been selected to join schools that match their grades for failure to select schools of their choice prior to the exams.
The reporting date for all 2024 Form One learners is January 15, 2024.
In Kenya, public schools are categorised as National, Special Needs Education, Extra County, County and Sub County whereby students are placed depending on their performance in the KCPE exams.
According to Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu, a total of 28,052 candidates did not select any secondary schools in the various categories.
Out of these, 222 would have qualified to join national schools, 4,837 scored grades to join extra county schools, another 8,716 would have joined county schools and 14,277 would have joined sub-county schools going by their scores in the KCPE.
“During the placement, my attention was drawn to a specific issue that is worthy of mention. Some candidates, despite having high scores, did not make any school choices. A total of 28,052 candidates did not make choices of schools in various categories,” said Mr Machogu.
“This situation presented us with a dilemma, as we sought to ensure that every candidate had a placement that would enable them to continue their education seamlessly. A decision was therefore reached to place these candidates in public sub-county secondary schools that were nearest to their former primary schools,” he added.
Among these were 683 candidates from Wanjohi sub-county in Nyandarua and 330 from Kopsiro sub-county in Bungoma county.
Some students have also missed slots in schools within their counties and have instead been placed in neighbouring counties.
Data from the Ministry of Education show that a total of 62,007 students have been placed in schools based outside their counties.
Mr Machogu said this was a result of a huge increase of candidates who sat the 2023 KCPE examinations which rose by about 180,000.
The CS also explained the surge was attributed to the fact that this was the last 8-4-4 cohort, thus the last chance for all those who wanted to sit the examination.
“Consequently, this created a placement challenge, particularly in certain counties where there was insufficient capacity. As a result, some learners from these counties were placed in schools located in neighbouring counties,” Machogu said.
The largest number of students who were placed outside their counties are from Nairobi (27,995), followed by Kwale (9,185), Narok (8,236) and Kilifi (7,800). Others are Mombasa (4,662), Kajiado (3,396) and Isiolo (733).
“In this connection, and to mitigate the acute shortage in Nairobi, the government has started construction of 3,500 classrooms,” Machogu said.
The CS urged stakeholders of the affected regions to mobilise resources to urgently address the inadequacy in preparation for the rollout of Senior School in January 2026.
