Kaimenyi indicated that the 103 national schools in the country will be divided into four groups from which students will make selections.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 22 – The Ministry of Education is set to adopt a new set of guidelines on the Form One selection process which will see the top five candidates of each gender in each sub-county being placed in national schools of their choice.
Speaking during a consultative forum on Thursday morning, Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi indicated that the 103 national schools in the country will be divided into four groups from which students will make selections.
Kaimenyi pointed out that to determine the number of candidates to be placed in national schools from public or private primary schools in a particular sub-county, a formula will be applied which will take into consideration the gender of candidates and the schools in the area.
“Unlike last year, we will be selecting or picking five best boys and five best girls from each sub county purely on merit and based on their choice to go to national schools. Last year, we were picking the best three boys and the best three girls,” he said.
He recalled a case where 165,000 students applied for one school and stated that the new rules will give them a wide choice.
“This year we have clustered those 103 schools into four depending on the history, how long they have been there and infrastructure; instead of a child selecting only one school, we want them to pick four schools from these clusters so they have a chance at least of going to the national schools,” he stated.
“Candidates will be considered for selection to any of their four national schools choices by order of preference. The top five candidates of either gender in each sub-county shall be placed in national schools of their choice where possible.”
He stressed that selection of candidates will be calculated using what he terms as the county schools quotas, sub county school selection and extra county schools.
He stated that for extra-county schools, candidates will choose three extra-county schools; one of the choices must be from outside the host county of their primary school in order to promote national cohesion and integration.
“This year again we have decided that for the extra-county schools which are the former provincial schools, schools which are categorized on the basis of their past performance at county levels. Unlike last year, this year again we are saying the students will be given a chance to pick three of them. They have a component of 40 percent of students outside the county and this is for the purpose of promoting national cohesion and social integration,” he said.
The Education CS pointed out that the guidelines will ensure candidates are placed in schools of their choice based on merit and that this will guarantee equity in school placement.
He mentioned that the process will also ensure a proportionate sharing of national and extra-county school places between public and private school candidates in every sub-county, based on number of candidates taking KCPE from either category of primary schools.
He stated that it will ensure a harmonised selection process throughout the country at all levels, National, extra-county, county and sub-county.
According to the new guidelines, county schools have been categorised into boarding secondary schools in the county other than national and extra-county schools and they include some day schools in cities and major urban centres. Their catchment is the host county.
Sub-county schools are basically day schools, all new boarding schools and boarding schools with day wings. They draw their students solely from the host sub-county.
According to the guidelines, special needs education secondary schools are boarding schools that cater for students with special education needs.
There are 25 SNE secondary schools, their catchment is national and selection is done based on merit, candidate’s choice and type of impairment.
Integrated secondary schools are regular secondary schools that also admit students with special education needs. There are 70 integrated secondary schools that cater for specific impairments and selection is based on merit, candidate’s choice and type of impairment.
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