School heads mint cash on courses applications

Fresh details have emerged of how secondary school principals cash in on students university and college applications and pocket millions of shillings annually.

A day after our sister paper The Standard exposed how school heads kill the future of candidates by failing to submit applications to the placement agency, it emerged that most schools collect money from students but fail to send their applications.

Candidates pay Sh500 to apply for university and college courses at school level. It is a mandatory requirement for all Form Four students sitting KCSE to apply to the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) on courses they wish to study in universities and middle level colleges.

Outrage yesterday greeted the revelations that cumulatively, for the last three years, secondary school heads failed to assist some 1.6 million candidates to make applications for courses.

Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (Kessha) Kahi Indimuli who is attending a heads conference in China, said he will comment on the matter next week. “I will speak about it when I return next week,” said Mr Indimuli.

Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) Nairobi Executive Secretary Moses Owiti said many cases have been presented to his office.

“We know of several cases where heads collect money but do not register candidates. In some schools, they collect money from all students but only apply for a few,” said Mr Owiti.

All schools principals create an account where they apply for students’ placement to universities or colleges. Only the principal can submit the school applications and not individual students.

It however emerged that some candidates incur double costs after KCSE examination results are released.

“Some students resort to direct applications to colleges and this means they incur additional costs and miss out on government sponsorship because they are not admitted through KUCCPS,” said Owiti.

This year alone some Sh4 billion has been set aside to support students in middle level colleges.

Principal Secretary in the State Department of Vocational and Technical Education Kevit Desai yesterday said that all schools have been provided with necessary information on career guidance.

Interviews with some secondary school heads and deputy principals of the affected schools revealed that schools collect money but fail to send the data to KUCCPS.

“The money is always collected from students but the unfortunate thing is that only principals can send the data to KUCCPS. It is difficult to verify if the students were registered or not,” said a deputy principal in one of the schools in North Eastern region.

He added, “I was shocked to see KUCCPS data revealing that in the entire county no candidate applied for the courses." This month, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha accused his regional staff for sleeping on the job by staying in offices and failing to visit schools.

It emerged that most principals of poorly-performing schools fail to register the candidates because they predict poor grades. But KUCCPS CEO John Muraguri said there are more options for candidates including certificate and diploma courses.

Students have 18 choices open to them, when making applications at school level. “We must not condemn students if they cannot raise university entry grades. We have enough options for every student,” said Mr Muraguri.