Mikokwe secondary school records zero Form One admission

Mikokwe Secondary school in Bumula subcounty, Bungoma county has not admitted any Form One student since the admissions started.

The school that has been in existence for over seven years had only three students placed on its admission by the Education ministry but even the three are yet to report.

School principal Dickens Lumati said the placing of only three students in the joint admission could have been an error as the school has the capacity to host more students.

“Only three students were placed on our admission and all of them have not reported, meaning we will not have a Form One class this year,” he said.

He said one of the students was erroneously placed for admission in the school because he comes from Webuye East yet the school is a day school and far from where the child comes from.

“I doubt if she will report. It is impossible to have a day scholar from an 80 kilometres distance,” Lumangati said. 

He said the school can host up to 60 Form Ones but up to date no one has reported.

The school had a mean score of 2.0 in the 2020 KCSE exam with a population of 200 pupils.

It has six teachers on the TSC payroll while others are employed by the board.

This is the fourth time the school will be presenting students to sit for the KCSE exams.

Educationist Ben Wafula blamed the Education ministry system for placing Form One students saying they need to perfect it to avoid the confusion witnessed this year.

He said the previous system where students were placed in the schools of their choices needed to be revisited.

Wafula said in the new computerized system many students had been placed in faraway day schools which they couldn't manage travelling those distances.

In some incidences, he said students with good performance had been placed in very small schools.

He also blamed starting of schools without a clear plan.

“Most schools started by CDF not considering the need and distance to other existing ones will always face such predicament,” he said

Edited by Kiilu Damaris