Form one selection: 36,254 candidates to join National schools

Education CS Prof George Magoha. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Candidates who sat last year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination will join Form One places on August 2, 2021, Education CS George Magoha has announced.

A total of 36, 254 candidates will join national schools; 17,406 girls and 18,848 boys, Magoha said.

Some 201,067 learners have been posted to extra-county schools, 95,646 being girls and 105,431 boys.

213,591 candidates will attend county schools; 115,325 girls and 98,256 boys, while 718,516 are set to join sub-county schools- 357,029 girls and 361,487 boys.

Prof Magoha said every child has been placed in a government school and no child will miss placement, in line with the government’s 100 per cent transition policy.

He challenged senior government officers with the tendency of asking Ministry officials to place their children in certain schools, saying this behavior will not be tolerated.

“For those very senior government officials who can afford to take their children to say, Kabarak…why don’t you take your child there instead of asking us to displace another child to create space for yours? I don’t want to hear it. I will eve switch off my phone,” he warned.

He also challenged school heads to ensure candidates made wiser decisions as pertains the selection of schools, saying that some candidates will miss their preferred schools due to an influx.

Faith Mumo, the top student in last year’s KCPE with 433 marks will join Kenya High, while Samuel Wanyonyi who scored 430 marks will join Mang’u High.

Out of the 1,179,192 candidates who sat the exam, 1,171,265 will join public secondary schools.

The CS said the monies allocated to Education Ministry in the just-read budget for the 2021/22 Financial Year would go into good use, with priority given to issuance of school desks.

The Ministry got Sh202 billion in last week’s budget allocation to support its various programmes.

Sh4 billion will be used for examination waiver for Class 8 and Form 4 students, and Sh4.2 billion for primary and secondary infrastructure.