• Of keen interest to stakeholders is how each of the one students will get a place in secondary school as the 100 per cent transition policy demands.
• The government yesterday announced it had released Sh32 billion to cater for Secondary Education capitation.
Form 1 students began reporting to schools yesterday, in an exercise that will run for the next five days.
The Education ministry is banking on the National Education Management Information System to track the admission of 1,052,364 candidates who sat last year’s KCPE exam.
However, an adjustment on the system gives principals the power to use the learner’s index number to register, unlike the birth certificate numbers used previously.
The head teachers were also allowed to admit learners but key in their details once the admission frenzy calms.
Of keen interest to stakeholders is how each of the one million students will get a place in a secondary school in line with the government's 100 per cent transition policy.
Last year's figure was the highest ever transition rate with at least 92 per cent of 2017 KCPE candidates admitted. It pushed the number of learners in secondary schools to 2.8 million.
If all the candidates from this year are absorbed, the number of students is expected to rise to about 2.9 million learners in secondary schools.
The task ahead is for the school heads to make the learners' stay in school bearable despite limited resource caused by the surge in numbers.
Last year's admission is blamed for dangerous congestion and overstretching of limited resources.
Unlike previous years, the Education CS George Magoha on Monday directed that none of the students should be turned back even those with no fees, or uniforms.
“Admit the child first and then let the government deal with the other issue. That school is not yours. The school belongs to the government, the money belongs to the government the child belongs to the government,” Magoha said.
He spoke at Moi Girls School Nairobi where he inspected the admission exercise.
There are concerns that failure by parents to honour the payment agreement they enter with schools to clear fee arrears might slow down operations.
Basic Education Principal secretary Belio Kipsang yesterday announced Sh32.65 had been wired to school accounts to cater for the Free Day Secondary Education.
Under FDSE every student in public schools gets Sh22,244 as capitation for their education.
Those in day schools are not required to pay any extra fees while those in boarding will add some fees depending on the institutions they join.
The CS has also directed that girls who are pregnant or might have given birth during the examination period be allowed to enrol for secondary education.
In this year's admission, 33,009 students will join national schools, 184,816 are set to join extra-county schools, 188,454 will go to county schools.
The bulk of admissions — 669,145 candidates — will be admitted to sub-county schools.
The CS also said that the government had provided textbooks for the learners.