Why fewer students will join Form One

Nearly 50,000 places for Form One students have been lost because classrooms and other school facilities were destroyed during last year’s post-election violence.

That means that secondary schools will only admit 445,872 Form One students this year compared to 493,443 last year. The other 47,571 slots have been lost either because classrooms, dormitories and other facilities were destroyed in the violence.

The situation has been made worse by an acute shortage of teachers, Education minister Sam Ongeri said while launching the Form One selection which started in Nairobi on Thursday.

Prof Ongeri said the 19 national schools will admit 3,331 students while provincial schools will absorb 122,365. Another 277,693 students will join district schools.

Private schools are expected to absorb 42,483 students, leaving out about 250,000 without places in secondary schools.

“The Government is therefore urging schools with extra facilities to ensure that they increase the number of streams to accommodate more students,” Prof Ongeri told the headteachers who had met at the Kenya Institute of Education headquarters for the national selection.

The number of students without slots has pushed the population of Standard Eight leavers currently without access to secondary school education to about 2.3 million.

Prof Ongeri said the Government would establish more day secondary schools to increase admissions next year. He asked headteachers to stick to the fees guidelines released by the ministry, saying any extra charges must be agreed on.

“No headteacher has power to increase school fees or even impose levies,” he said. “Any increase or introduction of new levies must be discussed by the board of governors for submission to us (the Ministry) through the district education boards.”

There have been complaints by parents that some headteachers had been arbitrarily increasing school fees and introducing levies.

Prof Ongeri warned that any headteacher involved in the malpractice would have to resign. He also warned that no principal was authorised to admit students without the authority of the ministry.

Some schools have proposed exorbitant fees and levies that some parents cannot afford. Fee invoices obtained by the Nation show that some national schools have proposed up to Sh62,000 for students joining Form One. This is besides the Government subsidy of Sh3,600 for tuition and Sh6,400 for operational costs.

“National schools are known to be notorious... charging exorbitant fee and introducing various levies,” said Education permanent secretary Karega Mutahi.

Prof Ongeri asked headteachers to check bullying and harassment by senior students. “Bullying is child abuse thus it is a criminal offence under the Children’s Act 2001,” the minister said.

Prof Mutahi said the first tranche of Government allocation for the subsidised secondary education had been sent to the respective bank accounts of secondary schools.

This will be the second year for the programme in secondary schools, which has benefited 1.4 million students and in which the Government has Sh13 billion. Sh4 billion was sent out this year.

Prof Mutahi noted that Kenya had the highest cost of secondary school education in Africa. He said extreme poverty, particularly in urban slums and arid areas, had limited access to secondary school.

The negative attitude towards free education had also made parents abdicate from their roles of sending their children to school.

“There is also an inequitable distribution of teachers and this is largely evident in the urban areas,” he said.

The Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KSSHA) asked the Government to increase the number of schools to boost access to secondary education.

“We have had only 19 national schools for a very long time,” said association chairman Cleophus Tirop.

And in view of the rising food prices, Mr Tirop asked the Government to allow schools to buy grains from the National Cereals and Produce Board, to cut on the cost.

“Currently, we are buying the food from an open market where the prices are not favourable,” he said.

Selection was based on three criteria; the marks scored, geographical variation (quota system) and the choices made by the students.

The reporting dates for all Form One students will be between February 2 and 6.