KCPE champions to know their new schools by Friday

Education CS Fred Matiang'i during the release of 2016 KCPE exam results

Top students in this year’s KCPE will know the national schools they have been selected to join by Friday this week. The Standard can now reveal that Form One selection has begun in earnest with top Education officials holed up at Kenya Pipeline Corporation’s Morendat Training Centre in Naivasha.

The 30 ministry officials, including IT experts, have camped in the lakeside town to pick students who will join the coveted Government schools.

“The officers have been here since Monday and selection for the national schools is ongoing,” said one of the officials.

The process will be completed by Friday, when Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i is expected to officially launch selections for the other categories in Nairobi.

“The group has been involved in selecting students for the national schools. The main event will be in Nairobi on Friday,” said the officer.

The officer, who is not authorised to speak to journalists, added that soon after the selection was completed, students would receive text messages informing them of which schools they are expected to join.

“After launching the exercise, the CS will release an SMS number that students with over 400 marks can use to find out which national school they will be joining,” said the official.

Out of the 942,021 candidates who sat for last year’s exams, only 5,143 scored 400 marks and above. Some 207,141 scored between 301 and 400 marks while 501,552 scored between 201 and 300 marks.

There are 103 national schools grouped into four clusters, with cluster three comprising 18 schools that form the cream of the crop. These include Alliance High School, Mangu High School, Lenana School, Nairobi School, Alliance Girls and Moi Girls High School-Eldoret.

 BEST PERFORMERS

These schools are expected to take in the best performers in last year’s KCPE exams. The top pupil was Victor Oduor Odhiambo who scored 437 marks.

The official told The Standard that only a small team from the Ministry of Education was involved in national schools selection. Head teachers and principals have been left out.

All Form One students are expected to report to school from January 4, 2017, unlike in the past when the first lot reported in early February.

“All the students who have been picked to join national schools are expected to do so in the first week of January, when schools reopen,” said the official.

There was tight security at KPC Morendat Training Centre that is located along Moi North Lake Road. Armed AP officers kept all visitors to the facility out.

Sources said the IT experts were tasked with feeding all the results of the KCPE candidates into a software that will enable easy and fair selection for all the other categories once Dr Matiang’i officially launches the exercise on Friday.

The process of picking students to join county and extra-county schools will kick off at county level, according to the official.

“The picking of students to join these schools has been computerised and county directors of education will lead the exercise starting next week.”

On the selection, the source added that a system had been developed to benefit students in both private and public schools.

The officer noted that in the KCPE results, private schools produced the majority of students with over 400 marks, adding that this had been taken into consideration during the selection process.

“We have pupils from hardship areas who scored around 370 marks and this will be considered during the ongoing selection,” he said.