Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ezekiel Machogu gave a lifeline to private schools on Monday, January 16, while announcing form one placement.
The CS revealed that while placing candidates in various schools, the government did not consider whether the candidate came from a private or public primary school.
He further revealed that all 1,230,588 candidates who sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam in 2022 had all been placed in various secondary schools across the country.
“The Ministry of Education placed students to various secondary schools using merit, choice, and availability of space,” the CS revealed the criteria used.
Candidates joining national schools and special needs schools were placed according to their preferred choice.
“We have a total of 106 national schools in the country, we placed all candidates who scored 400 marks and above in the national schools of their choice.
“The same criteria were used to place candidates at Special Needs schools where they were placed according to their choice,” the CS stated.
According to the Ministry of Education, 18,794 female and 20,178 male candidates were placed in national schools of their choice.
Similarly, 871 female and 948 male candidates were placed in special needs schools of their choice.
The rest of the candidates were placed in secondary schools according to merit and availability of space.
“In Subcounty schools across the country, 372,459 female and 387,203 male candidates were admitted.
“This is the highest number of placements and most of the schools in the Subcounty category are day schools,” the CS announced.
County schools on the other hand got 107,461 female and 91,566 male candidates according to the CS.
Extra-county schools on the other hand got 111,105 female and 91,566 male students.
Letting candidates choose their preferred school was a shift from the policy set by the previous administration under ex-Education CS George Magoha.
In 2021, the Ministry of Education announced that it is the government that would solely choose where students would be placed.
“The Education Ministry will conduct a single selection and placement exercise for Form One students this year starting from 2021.
"We want a system that will pick the best brains from Kiandutu slums in Thika and take them to Alliance,” Magoha defended the government’s decision back then.
Private schools consistently fought the government-set criteria arguing it disadvantaged children who sat for schools in private primary schools.
“There is no private or public child. All are Kenyan children whose hard work and effort should be appreciated through fair public policies.
“We call for fair placement irrespective of whether they sat their exam in private or public institutions,” argued Kenya Private Schools Association national vice chairperson Solomon Munene on March 31, 2022.
On how to check Form One placement, follow this link
