Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers faults Form One selection

Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers branch officials have faulted the Ministry of Education Form One selection process.

Chairman Sammy Thambo said the exercise is not fair since it has denied students, from public and private schools, an opportunity to join schools of their choice.

Speaking to The Standard, Thambo said the digital selection system gives students who did not perform well opportunity to join national schools while relegating the 'brighter' ones to lower-cadre schools.

"This accreditation system is doomed to fail if school selections are left to a few individuals at Jogoo House," he said.

The union leader said selection of district schools, which are mostly mixed day schools, should be done manually saying some students have received admission letters from schools located far off.

"How can a student get admitted to a day school in a neighbouring sub-county 20km from their home which does not have boarding facilities?" he posed.

He said some district schools have also selected students with as low as 100 marks instead of these being offered a place at the youth polytechnics as per the ministry's directive.

Unfair move

Thambo said this unfair selection can lead to criminal activities in schools, which have been reported in the past, as students suffer the pressure of being in schools they did not select.

"This selection has killed everyone's morale and we face the risk of having crimes reported in schools caused by students who feel noone listened to them," he said.