Were you satisfied when you received your secondary school calling letter?Its always an anxious time when students are waiting to know if they are going to their dream school or basically just where they will be spending another memorable four years of their life.
More top KCPE candidates this year have been admitted to national schools than last year in a process where performance, schools chosen by the candidate and affirmative action determined who got the coveted slots.
With more than 12,000 students who scored more than 400 marks assured of admission into the 103 national schools, it fell on a committee picked by the Education ministry to determine how the other 20,000 slots in national schools will be shared out.
The top girl Olive Wachira from Riara School and the top Boy Rawlings Odhiambo from Kakamega Hill school, who scored 453 marks each, have been selected to join Kenya High and Alliance High School, respectively. Bildad Olson, who led in the special needs category, will also join Alliance High School.
The committee last week decided to use merit, school choice, equity and affirmative action as the key criteria. On the basis of the school a candidate selected, about 14,000 of the 248,000 plus students who scored between 350 and 400 marks were given places.
Another 4,000 students comprising the top five boys and the top five girls from each sub-county were selected to join the schools, ensuring students from marginalised areas were not left out. Some 1,606 students with special needs will also join national schools.
“The ministry has carried out the Form One selection exercise using criteria that are fair and accurate. All candidates had an equal chance of getting selected to their preferred schools based on merit, equity, choice and affirmative action,” Education CS Amina Mohamed said yesterday.
The number of students joining national schools has increased to 31,337 from 29,712 in 2017 as the government pushes for complete transition to secondary school.
Ms Mohamed said the ministry will place 1,032,334 candidates in secondary schools following expansion of facilities. She said Sh16 billion is earmarked for infrastructure development in secondary schools in 2019.
Do you think the form one selection was fair?