The Ministry of Education is set to begin the Form One selection for the 2020 KCPE candidates on Friday, May 28, in a process that will try to achieve the 100 percent transition as promised by the government.
According to a report by Nation, the top five candidates of either gender in every sub-county will be placed at the national schools of their choice.
The report also indicated that marks may be lowered for admission to national and extra county schools to accommodate more students.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, the Head of Communications in the Ministry of Education, Kennedy Buhere affirmed that the top candidate in each subcounty would get their preferred choice.
"The criteria will not depend on whether schools will have to lower the entry level marks, it will be based on the competitive nature of the schools as well as capacity.
"Each sub-county has a slot for a national school, but not all candidates choose that school. This means that it depends on the choices selected by the candidate," Buhere stated.
He also noted that students who scored over 400 marks may also miss out on a chance of joining their preferred national schools based on their selections.
He gave an instance where over 300,000 candidates may apply for a top national school such as Alliance Boys high School, the top five candidates who selected Alliance as their first choice will be given first priority as opposed to top candidates who selected the school as their second choice.
He noted that the same principle would apply to both extra county and county schools.
Further, in order to achieve 100 per cent transition, he stated that schools would have to accommodate extra students.
His sentiments were echoed by KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion who encouraged the students to concentrate on their studies as opposed to the choice of schools.
The KNUT boss also urged parents to encourage their children to attend the schools selected for them by the Ministry.
"There is no school in Kenya that lacks resources. All schools are the same whether public or national or day schools," Sossion stated.
