The Ministry of Education has declined transfer requests from more than 60,000 students who sat the 2025 Kenya Junior Secondary Education Assessment (KJSEA), mainly due to limited school capacity.
According to the Basic Education Principal Secretary Julius Bitok, the majority of the students who were seeking transfers to senior schools applied for top-tier institutions, which are fewer than 20 in the country, and have no infrastructural capacity to handle a large number of students.
The Grade 10 placement was fully automated, taking into account learners’ choices, performance in KJSEA, psychometric test results, equity considerations, and school capacity, according to the ministry.
"Out of the 183,000 that have been processed, 116,000 transfers have been approved, and 66,000 have been declined, so that is the position that we are at now," Bitok said during an interview on Saturday, December 27.
"The main reason that we are declining most of the requests is because of capacity. I have said more than 50,000 students are interested in 20 schools, which is impossible to deal with," he added.
Affected learners have been directed to make fresh appeals in the first week of January for them to get alternative institutions.
For those whose transfers have been approved, the ministry has said that they can access admission letters to their respective institutions starting from Sunday, December 28.
"One sad thing is that there are several schools in some areas that are not attracting enough students, and as a ministry, we are really thinking hard to ensure that these students have students across the country, and we are thinking of opening the second revision between dates 6 and 9," Bitok said.
The ministry further disclosed that learners would be required to report to their respective senior schools starting from January 12.
The Ministry of Education announced the results of the 2025 KJSEA examination on Thursday, December 11. It released the Grade 10 placements on Friday, December 19.
According to the Ministry, a total of 1,130,459 learners sat the 2025 KJSEA, with 578,630 being male, and 551,829 being female.
"The top performers in each STEM, social science, and arts track will get priority placement in boarding schools of their choice,” the Ministry stated.
