Magoha Cautions School Heads Against ‘Back Door’ Form One Slots
Educatiion cabinet secretary professor George Magoha has cautioned school heads against admitting 2020 KCPE candidates through the back door.
The CS announced that the ministry of Education will conduct a one-time selection and placement exercise for Form One students this year. This means that parents and learners won’t be given a second chance to select their schools of preference. all candidates joining dorm one will obtain their form one 2021 admission letters by clicking here.
Previous exercises opened up the process to parents and candidates to select their preferred schools in the second round of selection. Some parents would slots in their preferred schools, just to see their children learn in such schools. Magoha has warned against this act, claiming that it bars students who merit admission in certain schools from getting chances.
“Don’t try it my friend. The law will not spare you. Why would you sell a slot to a parent for selfish gains? Asked Magoha.
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To worsen the situation, the competition for chances in national schools is this year higher than it has been in the previous years.
Although national schools have a capacity of 30,000 chances for form ones, Only 8,091 candidates in the 2020 KCPE scored 400 marks and above. They will be given priority in the 103 national schools in the country.
About 282,090 candidates scored between 300-399 marks. The Form One selection process will be influenced by merit, candidates’ choices, regional balance, and affirmative action.
Regional balance will favour candidates who did not score high marks nationally but were top performers in their sub-counties. They may end up landing in category 1 nationally schools.
“We want a system that will pick the best brains from Kiandutu slums in Thika and take them to Alliance,” said magoha.
Unlike in the past, the Education ministry will conduct only one selection exercise for the 2021 class. This will largely affect pupils who scored below 350 marks but had high hopes of landing in their preferred school, which usually happens during the second round of selection. Those who will be blocked from national schools will find a soft landing in the 531 extra county schools which have a capacity of 123,399. Others will end up in the 1,032 county schools (142,358) and the 7,325 sub-county schools with a capacity of 685,590.
Nearly half of the 2020 KCPE candidates will end up in the sub-county schools.
Magoha warned school heads against selling form one slots to parents, who would opt for a second selection, saying that only one selection will be done and it will be done by the government,
Magoha also cautioned parents against paying cons to secure spaces for their children in national schools. He cited a resident who received Sh315,000 after promising to secure a child’s spot at Alliance.
