Form One placements out tomorrow

Pupils who sat the 2021 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam last month will know their Form One placements tomorrow, the Sunday Nation has learnt.

The selection process was completed last week, according to the Ministry of Education.

Over the last two weeks, parents and their children have been anxious, with some moving from one school to another trying to secure placement.

Some 1.2 million candidates sat the exam and are expected to join Form One next month, a week after schools reopen on April 25, for the first-term academic calendar.

The placement will exclude inmates, overage candidates and candidates from refugee camps.

According to Education CS George Magoha, the Form One selection was conducted in a free and fair manner. He assured all candidates of getting good schools as per their choice and based on their performance.

“Affirmative action will also be applied in the selection to ensure learners in slums areas and marginalised counties are placed in good schools,” said Prof Magoha.

Moi Girls, Eldoret

Schools that many parents are eyeing are Kenya High, Alliance Boys, Alliance Girls, Mang’u Boys, Pangani Girls, Starehe Boys, Kapsabet Boys and Moi Girls, Eldoret. Some parents are also hoping that their children will be placed in the recently elevated national schools or extra-county schools in their regions.

In the past Form One placements, thousands of children have been caught by surprise after failing to secure schools of their choice, despite having performed well and met the cut-off mark requirement.

This has resulted in parents moving from one school to another to seek transfers, only for their children to report to find at their secured schools that no transfer had been effected.

In other incidents, those who did not initiate their transfers have in the past reported to their placed schools, having paid full school fees, only to find the National Education Management System (Nemis) reflecting their names in a different institution.

Last year, incidents of learners being turned away from their placed schools were rampant, prompting the Ministry of Education to intervene.

400 marks

This year’s placement is likely to see thousands of candidates who did not score 400 marks and above join national schools, which have the capacity to accommodate over 30,000 students.

The ministry’s last year data shows that some 36,254 candidates were placed in national schools, 201,077 in extra-county schools,1.2 million in county schools, 1,827 in special needs schools, and 718,516 in sub-county schools.

In the 2021 KCPE exam, some 11,857 candidates scored between 400 and 500 marks, compared to the 8,091 in 2020, increasing the number by 3,766.

Another 315,275 candidates scored between 300 and 399 marks, compared to the 282,090 who scored the same marks in 2020; while 578,197 candidates scored between 200 and 299 marks, compared to the 589,027 candidates under the same category in 2020.

In the past three years, the ministry has been using affirmative action to place learners in national schools, where all top five candidates of either gender from every sub-county are placed in top schools on the basis of the choices they made during registration for KCPE exams.

The majority of candidates who had scored 400 marks and above last year were placed in national and extra-county schools.

[email protected]