Varsities, other colleges start picking of students

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha (L) and Absa Bank Kenya Managing Director Jeremy Awori (R) when the bank donated masks and bags to pupils [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

At least 700,000 students who sat the secondary education national examination this year will be placed in tertiary institutions by end of July.

Yesterday, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha announced that the revision of course choices for placement to degree, diploma, artisan and craft courses had started and would end in July.

Magoha said all the 143,140 candidates who scored C+ and above in the 2020 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) would get placement in institutions of higher learning. Public and private universities have reported having 160,160 positions for new government-sponsored students, while colleges, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions announced 331,045 slots for Form Four leavers.

“All the candidates who scored a mean of C+ or above will be absorbed in universities and TVET institutions of their choice. The remaining over 600,159 who are eligible will apply to various programmes in polytechnics and other technical training institutions,” said Prof Magoha.

The CS spoke at Joseph Kang’ethe Primary in Kibra during the handing over of school bags and face masks donated by Absa Bank.

“The revision timeline will allow the institutions of higher education to admit the students in the new academic year beginning September 2021. I announce the government’s commitment to providing an opportunity for every student to pursue careers of their choice,” said Magoha.

On placement, the CS noted that the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) would be reopening its systems for new applications and to allow candidates to review the courses they had selected earlier.  “Candidates who were not able to apply for placement or wish to change will have the opportunity to submit their choices or review their applications.” 

The CS noted that there had been a shift of mindset in admission into institutions of higher learning, with more students who score highly in KCSE opting to join technical institutions. “I was very happy with the 2019 examination cycle because some of the students who chose TVETs over universities had scores of A, and it was by choice,” he said.  The CS added that Form One selection results for the 2020 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination would be released on June 15, adding that all the candidates would join secondary school.

“Students will get Form One slots regardless of their social background, and all we ask of parents and other stakeholders is to protect the learners and ward off all forms of child abuse that might prevent them from joining Form One,” said the CS.

Magoha said the Ministry would be supplying more than 635,000 desks to public primary and secondary schools at a cost of Sh1.9 billion, in addition to the 625,000 desks supplied last year in adherence to the Covid-19 social distance guideline.