Fresh row on Form One selection days before KCPE

KCSE candidates at Ngara Girls High School in Nairobi tackle the English Paper on Tuesday. Private schools want 60 per cent of all national school slots shared equally among all candidates sitting this year's KCPE. [PHOTO: DAVID NJAAGA/STANDARD]

NAIROBI, KENYA: Another row is simmering over next year’s Form One selection, days before Standard Eight candidates sit this year’s national examinations.

Private schools now want a special committee constituted to avert last-minute wrangles over students’ admission to various categories of schools.

Kenya Private Schools Association (Kepsa) said Wednesday they have not yet heard anything form the Ministry of Education even after having been asked by Permanent Secretary Belio Kipsang to forward names to form the selection review committee.

“We were asked by the PS to forward names to form the selection review committee but we haven’t heard anything from the ministry again,” said Kepsa chief executive officer Peter Ndoro.

In their proposals, private schools want 60 per cent of all the slots to national schools shared equally among the 889,107 candidates sitting this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE).

They also want 40 per cent of the slots in national schools allocated based on affirmative action.

Currently, the Government selects two top candidates per district to join national schools. The other slots are shared between candidates from public and private schools.

 VULNERABLE AREAS

These proposals are contained in a document titled ‘Form One Selection Proposals for 2015”.

“If our proposed formula is implemented, it will increase opportunities for children in marginalised, vulnerable, disadvantaged and hard-to-reach areas to access education in national schools,” reads the report.

It also says the revised formula will encourage learners to work hard in their schools irrespective of where they come from without feeling discriminated.

Kepsa says several candidates who sat last year’s KCPE exam were discriminated against based on the current formula.

He said of the 17,500 slots in national schools, only 4,345 slots were reserved for students from private schools. This only constituted 15 per cent.

This means that 13,155 slots were allocated to students in public schools, constituting some 75 per cent.

Ndoro said based on the current formula, private schools lost some 9,000 students to public schools. “These students either left private schools in Class Seven or Form Three to go and sit examinations in public schools where they stood a better chance of selection to national schools,” said Ndoro. These selections were based on 78 national schools.

“The new proposals will greatly reduce movement of children from private to public schools because of the perceived opportunities,” reads the document in part.

But Wednesday, Kipsang said private schools know the communication channel they should use to address the ministry on the selection. “Why do they want to address us through the media? They know the framework within which we communicate and they should use that,” he said.

He also said the selection has always been conducted in time and wondered why private schools want to rush the process.

Currently, there are some 105 national schools, selecting the best preforming candidates from all over the country.