NAIVASHA, Kenya, Jun 25 — Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha has revealed that 16,310 2021 KCSE students did not apply for university slots under Kenya University Colleges Central Placement Services (KUCCPS).
Although CS Magoha did not cite specific reasons, he alluded to other opportunities including those that may have opted to study abroad.
“I have also noted that 16,310 candidates who qualified for degree programmes in the 2021 KCSE examination did not submit applications and may have opted to pursue other opportunities including opting to study abroad,” said Magoha.
This comes even as KUCCPS placed 123,963 of 144,466 2021 KCSE candidates who qualified for university slots.
Another 5,278 were placed to TVET institutions by choice, the Ministry of Education announced on Saturday.
Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Magoha further said 16,310 candidates who qualified for degree programmes did not submit applications and may have opted to pursue other opportunities including opting to study abroad.
Magoha said that a total of 250,052 students submitted their applications for placement to universities, TVET institutions and Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) this year.
He pointed out that for the first time, KUCCPS placed applicants for admission to the 32 public diploma primary teacher training colleges.
“A total of 1,538 (1,216 female, 322 male) have been placed in Diploma in Primary Teacher Education and Diploma in Early Childhood Teacher Education,” Magoha said.
He went further to say KUCCPS placed 293 student (129 male, 164 female) to three colleges offering Diploma in Secondary Teacher Education, namely: Kagumo, Kibabii and Lugari TTCs.
“These students will be trained to deliver the CBC curriculum,” he said.
He pointed out that 90 per cent of the 2021 KCSE candidates who attained a mean grade of C + and above applied and were competitively placed, with 85 per cent of them getting Degree programmes and 5 per cent taking up courses in TVET Institutions.