The long wait for incoming Form One learners and their families to know the secondary schools they have been admitted to will come to an end tomorrow, when selection results will be released.
The results were earlier expected on May 28, but were pushed back by two weeks over unexplained reasons. Two months after release of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam results, Education cabinet secretary George Magoha will announce the outcome of the secondary school selection that has been going on.
The selection results will be released for all categories of schools, from national to sub-county, unlike before when selection to national schools would be announced first.
The CS has assured that all the 1.18 million candidates who sat the KCPE will be placed in secondary schools. The Education ministry places candidates based on their performance, availability of vacancies and the choices of secondary schools that they made when they registered for the examinations. Prof Magoha said the computerised process will be “water-tight, credible and of high integrity” with no room for manipulation.
The learners, who have been out of school since they completed the KCPE examinations on March 24, will join secondary school mid next month, when the Term One of the reorganised calendar begins. Competition for places is usually toughest for national schools and other top-performing schools.
However, new rules will make it harder for learners admitted to schools they do not prefer to transfer to other schools. The placement results will be available on the National Educational Management Information System (Nemis) and transfers will only be permissible through the same system.
During registration for examinations, candidates are allowed to select four national schools, three extra-county schools, two county schools and two sub-county schools. Registration for the 2021 candidate class is currently on and will close on July 31.
The capacity of the schools is a factor in addition to the overall performance in the counties that the learners come from. There 103 national schools, 531 extra-county, 1,031 county, 7,325 sub-county and 1,164 private high schools.
During the previous Form One selection, national schools had declared a capacity of 29,712 students, extra-county (123,399), county (142,358), and sub-county schools 685,590 positions. In addition, private secondary schools have a capacity of 69,880 students.
There are 32 special needs secondary schools with a capacity of 1,453 students. The schools are classified as national schools as they admit learners from across the country, based on their disability.
Education stakeholders have in the past expressed concerns that many of the KCPE candidates might fail to report to Form One next month as happened last year before schools reopened. Thousands of learners have dropped out of school in the past one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A significant number of girls have become pregnant while others have been married off. Boys have also dropped out mainly on account of drug and substance abuse whereas others have joined the informal labour market.
