Students who sat the 2020 KCPE exam will next week know which secondary schools they have been admitted to.
The Form 1 selection team began work in Naivasha on Friday under the supervision of the Education and ICT ministries.
Since 2017, a computerised system has been used to aid the placement of the candidates to secondary school.
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha postponed the Form 1 selection process on May 28 and pushed it to June 15.
Sources indicate that the Education ministry could release the results of the placement earlier than June 15 so parents can prepare for admission in July.
The Star has established that all national and extra county schools will get at least 300 students.
All the 8,091 candidates who scored 400 marks and above in the 2020 KCPE examination will find places in national schools.
The selection of candidates to national and extra county schools will be on basis of merit, their school choices, and the capacity of respective schools.
Sources indicate that this year, national schools will admit 40,000 students, another 190,000 slots have been identified in extra county schools and a further 200,000 slots in county schools.
Of the over 1 million candidates who sat the exam, 243,320 got between 301 and 400 marks. They will occupy places in the extra-county and county schools.
At the subcounty schools, 680,145 slots are available. This means the day schools will carry the bulk of the admission, with more than half of the 2020 candidates expected to join them.
This will include a big share of the 586,886 candidates who scored between 201 and 300 marks and 262,307 candidates who had between 101 and 200 marks.
Two months ago the Education CS Magoha warned some Principals of national schools against interfering with the Form 1 selection exercise.
According to the Ministry the schools are accused of pre selecting their form one class prior to the National Form one Selection process.
“The purpose of this letter is to ask you to inform the Principals of the listed schools in your jurisdiction to ensure that they only pre-select candidates who have chosen their schools as per the KNEC data base. The National Selection process will ignore the pre-selection of such candidates and place them in schools of their choice and on merit if this instruction is not adhered to,” said the Ministry through a circular.
The schools targeted in this crack down are;
1. Starehe Boys Centre – (Nairobi)
2. Starehe Girls – (Nairobi)
3. Moi Forces Academy – (Nairobi)
4. Moi Forces – Lanet – (Nakuru)
5. Utumishi Academy – (Nakuru)
6. Utumishi Girls – (Nakuru)
7. Moi Tea Girls – (Kericho)
In May, Magoha promised every candidate will get a place in a secondary school as he announced the results at the Kenya National Examination Council headquarters.
“We are determined to work with the relevant agencies to ensure that no candidate misses a place in secondary school,” Magoha said.
This will push the number of the secondary school population from the current 2.8 million to about 3.2 million.
The institutions will also be grappling with the management of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has necessitated a rethinking of spacing at learning institutions.
