The Form One selection has kicked off a frantic search for secondary schools as disgruntled parents flocked the institutions seeking transfer for their children yesterday.
Many of the parents and learners are unhappy with the schools they have been placed in following the announcement of the placement by Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha on Monday.
The pressure on principals of in demand schools is so high that the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kessha) revealed that many of the principals had to switch off their phones to ward off countless calls from parents. Kessha chairman Kahi Indimuli said parents seem to think their children can only perform well in particular schools.
“Some parents are claiming that this is an election year and they want their children in nearby schools where they are guaranteed of their safety, but what principals are wondering is that during the election period, all learners will be home and, therefore, the fears being raised by parents cannot hold water,” he said adding that “others feel the schools their children were placed to join are not good enough to guarantee quality education”.
Mr Indimuli said majority of the students were placed in schools they had chosen, but that they only want to be placed in their first school of choice, a situation he described as impossible. He told the Nation that schools do not have enough capacity to admit the learners seeking transfers.
“For instance, here at Machakos School which is a national school, we received over 72,000 applications , yet our school has a capacity for 450 students, therefore, when all these parents come to us, as a school we are unable to admit their children,” he said.
While launching the Form One selection, Prof Magoha revealed that top-performing schools received huge applications way beyond their capacity, making it impossible to place all students who selected them.
“I live in Nairobi. My child has been selected to join a school I’ve never heard of in West Pokot County. She did not even select the school. We both don’t want to go there because it is too far,” one parent told the Nation.
From the Ministry of Education data, Nanyuki High School was the most preferred school with 156,003 selections against a capacity of 480 students. Other schools that attracted many candidates were Kabianga High School (149,087) against a capacity of 528 students, Pangani Girls (118,073) against a capacity of 336 students, Maseno School (110,811) against a capacity of 576 students, Nakuru High School (107,915) against a capacity of 336 and Alliance Girls High School against a capacity of 384 students
They were followed by Kapsabet Boys High School which has a capacity of 384 students received 99,725 applications, Butere Girls High School with a capacity of 528 students but received 98,410 applications, Mang’u High School with a capacity of 432 students received 93,648 applications while Moi Girls High School Eldoret received 92,666 applications against a capacity of 336 students. Mr Indimuli urged parents to ease the pressure they are piling on school heads as it is still “too early” to effect any transfers.
“Imagine if all the students who had applied to join these schools went to the principals wanting to be transferred there, will it even be possible to admit all of them?” he asked.
Mr Indimuli said, as at yesterday, he had not taken any result slips from parents who have been contacting him as the school had been allocated students to fill its capacity.
“We are asking parents to wait until the students placed in respective schools to report first as principals cannot give away vacancies for the already placed students,” he said.
Since 2017, the Ministry of Education stripped principals of the powers to admit students directly to their schools. The placement is only done electronically and students and parents are required to download admission letters from the National Education Management System (Nemis), which they take to their primary school heads for stamping before reporting to their secondary schools.
For any transfer to be effected, a parent must make a formal request to the principal of their preferred school, who initiates a transfer through Nemis based on available vacancies. Vacancies arise when some students fail to report within the set deadlines. Initially, principals would issue transfer letters to parents without necessarily logging into the online system.
However, due to increased cases of corruption and claims that some principals demanded hefty fees to effect transfers and issue admission letters, the Ministry of Education introduced the new transfer guidelines.
Approval of transfers to national, extra-county and county schools can only be granted at the ministry’s head office, by regional coordinators and by county directors of education, respectively. Once a transfer is effected, the students will only be required to download their new letter from the Nemis website. Schools do not issue any admission letters.
Mr Indimuli said unless the students who have been admitted in respective schools fail to report, schools received full capacity and therefore there may be no space for the transfers.
