Students who sat the 2021 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) test last month will learn their Form One placement tomorrow.
The selection procedure was concluded last week, according to the Ministry of Education.
Over the last two weeks, parents and their children have been nervous, with some relocating from one school to another in an attempt to get a spot.
The exam was taken by 1.2 million students, and they will begin Form One the following month, a week after schools reopen on April 25 for the first-term academic calendar.
Inmates, candidates over the age of 18, and candidates from refugee camps will not be considered for placement.
The Form One selection process, according to Education CS George Magoha, was free and fair.
He guaranteed all candidates that, based on their choices and performance, they would be admitted to good schools.
“Affirmative action will be used in the selection process to ensure that learners from slums and marginalized counties are put in good institutions,” Prof Magoha stated.
Many parents are interested in Kenya High, Alliance Boys, Alliance Girls, Mang’u Boys, Pangani Girls, Starehe Boys, Kapsabet Boys, and Moi Girls, Eldoret.
Some parents hope that their children will be placed to newly promoted national or extra-county schools in their communities.
Thousands of pupils have been taken off guard in prior Form One placements after failing to gain schools of their choice despite performing well and passing the required cut-off level.
As a result, parents have been travelling from school to school in search of transfers, only to have their children report to their secured schools and realize that no transfer had taken place.
Others have reported to their allocated schools, having paid full school fees, only to find their identities recorded in a different institution by the National Education Management System (Nemis).
Several complaints of pupils being turned away from their designated schools prompted the Ministry of Education to intervene last year.
Thousands of candidates who did not earn 400 or higher marks are expected to enroll in national institutions, which have a capacity of over 30,000 pupils, for this year’s placement.
According to ministry data, 36,254 applicants were placed in national schools, 201,077 in extra-county schools, 1.2 million in county schools, 1,827 in special needs schools, and 718,516 in sub-county schools the previous year.
There were 11,857 candidates who earned between 400 and 500 marks on the KCPE test in 2021, up from 8,091 in 2020, a 3,766 increase.
Another 315,275 candidates scored between 300 and 399 points, compared to 282,090 in 2020; and 578,197 candidates scored between 200 and 299 points, compared to 589,027 in 2020.
For the previous three years, the ministry has used affirmative action to place learners in national schools, with all top five candidates of either gender from each sub-county being placed in top institutions based on their KCPE registration preferences.
The majority of candidates with a 400 or above score were placed in national and extra-county schools last year.
