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By Augustine Oduor
Over 100,000 candidates who sat last year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) may just go to waste if technical institutions are not expanded.
The just released examination results show that some 118,265 candidates who scored grade D and bellow can only be absorbed in youth polytechnics.
Education minister Sam Ongeri said only 172,662 who scored between grade C and D+ are eligible for absorption by middle level colleges.
The minister also revealed that over 87,000 candidates may also miss university places.
Of 411,783 candidates who sat last year’s examinations, 1,930 candidates scored grade ‘A’ compared to 1,566, last year.
Those who scored grade C+ and above (and are eligible for university admissions) were 119,658 up from 97,134 in 2010.
Alarming numbers
Speaking during the examinations release, Prof Ongeri said the number is alarming and should prompt the expansion of places in the country’s youth polytechnics.
"There is need to invest in middle level colleges to absorb the learners who do not attain university entry points and also ensure that we have the technical skills to move the country to a middle level industrialised nation by 2030," he said.
Last year, Higher Education minister Margaret Kamar said the Government is developing a legal framework to upgrade technical training institutions.
She said the move is aimed at producing competent technicians to satisfy market demand and enhance human resource.
She also said the Government is instituting measures to revitalise youth polytechnics to absorb thousands of pupils and students who fail to get admissions to Form One and universities.
Proposals
The education taskforce has, however, recommended a raft of proposals, which if adopted, will end the annual wastage of candidates who fail to meet the university grade.
Four course pathways have been proposed that will offer students an opportunity to choose between ‘general education, technical, vocational or talent academies’ immediately after they sit junior secondary education examinations.
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