100 leading schools to join national league list

More than 100 top performing secondary schools have been recommended for upgrading to national schools this year.

The list of the proposed schools, at least two from each county, will be submitted to Education permanent secretary James Ole Kiyiapi on Sunday.

The government plans to effect the upgrade this year to ease the stiff competition for the existing 4,000 places in the country’s 18 national schools.

Once adopted, the new plan will push the number of Standard Eight exam candidates admitted to national schools to 30,000 next year.

A bold attempt

Over the weekend, Prof Kiyiapi confirmed that there will be two national schools for each of the 47 counties next year.

It is a bold attempt to address the rising demand for national schools, which hit a peak this year, forcing the government to introduce a drastic quota system that favoured government-sponsored candidates over those from private schools.

The list, drawn by a team of the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association with the full knowledge of the Education ministry, identifies at least two schools from each county for the face-lift for consideration by the government.

It means there would be room by the government to pick two in cases where the team recommended for more than two schools in a county.

Some of the schools earmarked for the elevation include Nairobi’s top performing girl schools Precious Blood and Pangani.

Dagoretti High is the boy school that has been proposed from Nairobi county.

In Rift Valley, Kapsabet Boys and Naivasha Girls are some of the schools whose names have been proposed.

In Coast, Shimo La Tewa and Malindi High have been selected, while in Nyanza region, Cardinal Otunga Boys and Lwak Girls are some of the proposed schools.

In Central, Kagumo has been picked as has Precious Blood Kilungu, and Machakos Boys in Eastern province. Kakamega Boys and Lugulu Girls have been picked from Western.

Garissa Boys and Wajir Girls are among those selected in North Eastern counties.

The group has proposed that the criteria that favours public schools over private ones in Form One admission should be scrapped immediately the schools are upgraded to allow a level playing field for all 2011 KCPE candidates.

President Kibaki last week signalled the government’s resolve the end the Form One entry crisis, saying, selected provincial schools will be promoted.

A paper prepared by school principals says only schools that did well in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exam qualified for upgrade.