Form One selection to begin today

Nairobi, Kenya: Slightly more than 26,000 candidates who sat this year's Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exam will today know the national schools they have been selected to join.

Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i will preside over the selection ceremony that will see other categories of schools start the selection process.

Speaking during the release of the examination results earlier this month, Dr Matiang'i said candidates who scored 400 marks and above would get places in the coveted 103 national schools. Some 5,143 candidates scored 400 and above.

It emerged that the selection formula used early this year will apply.

This means that the top five candidates– of either gender– in each sub-county will be placed in any of the national school of their choice.

It also means that the top three candidates across all sub-counties will be selected first and placed in schools of their choice.

Top performers

"The remaining two top performers per sub-county will be placed according to candidature strength because there are areas with very low candidature," reads the revised 2015 Form One selection criterion.

This means that the rest of the candidates in each sub-county will be selected based on candidature strength between public and private schools.

The formula used during 2015 Form One selection, further states how candidates will be placed to extra-county, county and sub county schools.

This means that of the 952,388 candidates who sat 2016 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education some 67,000 will join the 300 extra-county schools.

Another 115,000 will be admitted to the 993 county schools.

About 400,000 candidates are expected to be absorbed in to sub-county schools. Currently, there are about 6,982 sub-county schools.