A shock awaits thousands of Form One students who received admission letters from principals as the Government maintained that it would only recognise letters generated from its online system.
In a departure from the past where school principals had the liberty of dishing out letters to parents whose children had not initially been admitted to their institutions, stringent measures now put in place by the Education ministry bar any such deals.
Parents who have obtained admission letters through the back door and not the ministry’s National Education Management Information System (Nemis) could find themselves going back home with their children when they report to school on Monday.
Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has reiterated the ministry’s warnings that letters not generated from the portal would be deemed fake as they would not be in the ministry’s records.
This will affect some of the 296,758 Form One students who were selected to join national, extra-county and county schools.
Ms Amina had promised that all the 12,273 candidates who scored more than 400 marks in last year’s exams would be selected to join any of the 103 national schools.
But in a circular dated yesterday and sent to regional and county coordinators of education, Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang directed that for the Government to account for every child in school, it had decided that the use of Nemis be the central point of admission.
Nemis is a web-based data management solution by the ministry which collects data and information from educational institutions; processes and reports the status of designed indicators; and provides the sector with a solid ground for effective management