KCPE stars to know their national schools on Thursday

Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination candidates selected to join national schools will know which schools they will join on Thursday.

The selection exercise, presided over by Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, started after the release of the KCPE results on December 30.

The list of about 23,085 students expected to join 103 national schools across the country in February will be presented to schools heads on Thursday.

Last year, 20,291 students joined national schools.

The selection is currently under way in Naivasha under the leadership of Director of Secondary and Tertiary Education (DSTE) Robert Masese.

It is being done by education officials, national school principals, their deputies and senior teachers and is being conducted through computation of quotas, merit, equity and choice of schools by candidates.

Mr Masese could not be immediately reached for comment.

After the release of the national school selection results, the exercise will shift to 328 extra-county schools, 993 county and 6,982 sub-county schools.

Schools that have already done pre-selection include the 25 special need schools, Starehe Boys, Starehe Girls, Moi Forces Academy Nairobi, Moi Forces Lanet and Utumishi Academy.

Five top candidates of either gender in each sub-county will be placed in national schools of their choice, irrespective of whether they are from public or private schools.

All the 7,560 candidates who scored more than 400 marks will join national schools irrespective of whether from private or public schools.

This is a deal that was struck by private schools and Dr Matiang’i early this month.

TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND TO MISS OUT

Out of the 927,789 candidates who sat the examination, 729,663 will join secondary schools while 211,000 will miss out.

Extra-county schools will take 63,315, county schools 128,110 students, sub-county 449,766, private schools 63,956 and special institutions are expected to admit 1,430 learners.

45 students per stream

The anticipated capacity for each school has been computed on the basis of 45 students per stream.

At extra-county level, students in public schools will get 70 per cent of the slots while the remaining 30 per cent will go to private schools.

Education Principal Secretary Bellio Kipsang said that in the unlikely event that some candidates are not selected to schools of their choice despite their marks, such candidates will be placed in available slots in schools of comparable level of performance or category and, as such, no candidate will be left out.

“At national, extra-county and county levels, selection is fully computerised and based on merit and candidates choice as much as possible,” said Dr Kipsang in a circular to education officials.

Dr Kipsang said candidates who fail to take up places in schools where they will have been selected will be replaced after the reporting deadline set by the ministry.

Officers from the ministry headquarters will be assigned to the counties and regions to witness the county selection process.

DON'T BE DUPED

“All admission letters will be released to students free of charge and, therefore, parents and guardians should not be duped into parting with presents, tokens, appreciations or inducements,” said Dr Kipsang.

The PS said candidates who will have been offered places in schools and are unable  to take up the positions for reason of inability to pay fees should seek assistance from their respective constituency bursary committees and well-wishers.

“At no time should anyone short-change them for cheaper schools with the promise of meeting their fess if they surrender their calling letters to the children of the benefactors in exchange for the promised assistance,” said Dr Kipsang.

He added that replacement for national schools will as much as possible maintain a national catchment with declared vacancies benefiting students from counties that may not have taken up their first selection slots.

Dr Kipsang has also advised that schools should engage students who wish to be considered in the event of a vacancy.