Ensure fairness in giving out the Form One slots

Excitement over the KCPE examination results is waning and focus is now shifting to the serious business of securing Form One places for the students. In the next two weeks, education officials – as well as parents and learners – will be worrying about which schools the candidates will be admitted to and how this will affect the next four years of their lives.

That is why it is important for the headteachers and other education officials involved in Form One selection to be fair to all the candidates and take into consideration the choices the pupils made. Although in the past Kenyans have been told that the process has been computerised, it is still important that where human intervention comes into play, the concerned officials act in the best interest of the children. This is the least they can do as there will be attempts by various players – not least parents – who will seek to skew the process to give some candidates an advantage over the others.

Since it is not possible for every candidate to get admission to a school of their choice, the interventions put in place to distribute them should take into account factors that will facilitate or hinder access to suitable slots. The system should also have a formal process through which candidates or their parents and guardians can appeal if they are dissatisfied to prevent instances of frantic parents moving randomly from school to school seeking a place for their children.

Although the system has been automated – which should inspire confidence that the selection is fair and transparent – it would also be advisable for the relevant agencies to make public the slots that have not been taken up to help guardians and candidates make informed choices without having to shoot in the dark trying their luck.

There is also a need to have a mechanism that ensures bright but poor learners and those from marginalised areas are not locked out and their slots dished out to the children of influential personalities as has happened in the past.

The exercise, when all is said and done, ought to bear in mind that the ultimate goal of the selection is to give all children a fair chance to compete for the slots they have earned by dint of their performance, irrespective of a child's gender, family background or other extraneous considerations.