The government, through the Ministry of Education, is looking for 150,000 pupils who sat for the KCPE last year and were selected to join Form One but are yet to report.
The Ministry will embark on a tracking operation to establish the whereabouts of the students in a bid to achieve its 100 percent transition rate into secondary schools.
The figure (150,000) represents 15 percent of the 1,033,901 pupils who sat for the KCPE examination in 2018. 873,692 have reported, amounting to 85 percent transition rate.
A report by the Ministry indicated that Murang'a county led with the highest number of students who reported to secondary school at 97 percent followed by Siaya and Kirinyaga Counties at 95 percent each while Kisumu recorded at 94 percent reporting rate.
Tana River County has the lowest enrolment, at 59 percent, where 2,205 students reported against a target of 3,721.
Education CS Amina Mohamed noted that students' details had been captured on the NEMIS platform enabling capture of real-time data of admission.
She noted that the system facilitated increased access to admission letters in remote counties.
“This process reinforced efficiency of admissions, promotion of fairness and openness and the online provision of admission letters prevented cartels from ‘peddling’ admission letters,” the CS explained.
CS Amina, however, outlined several challenges faced by the Ministry including change of data, lack of birth certificates and slow internet connectivity in remote regions.
“It is estimated that about five percent may have sought to re-take the KCPE exam. This will be verified when registration data from the KNEC is harmonised,” she added.
