A total of 42, 927 2023 KCPE candidates secured places in national schools, Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has announced.
Speaking during the release of the 2024 form one selection and placement results on at Lenana School, Nairobi, on Monday, Machogu noted that of the total admitted to national schools, 22,051 were boys while 20,876 were girls.
He further noted that 2,225 candidates secured places in Special Needs schools (1,214 boys and 1,011 girls).
He said 274, 746 candidates (141, 590 boys and 133,156 girls) got places in Extra County schools while 288, 201 learners (129,332 boys and 158,869 girls) secured placement in County schools.
The CS added that a majority, 792, 230 learners (423, 171 boys and 369,059 girls) got places in Sub-County schools.
In the placement, all candidates who scored 400 Marks and above were placed in either the National or Extra County schools of their choice.
Similarly, all other candidates were placed in county or sub-county schools, according to the parameters set.
Learners with special needs were placed either in regular or Special Needs schools based on their disability categories, merit and choice.
Machogu said the Ministry has continued to apply affirmative action to cater for the needy and vulnerable children in identified slums and informal settlements in urban areas.
“Through affirmative action, we managed to place 130 learners in national and 167 in extra county schools. This comprised 150 girls and 147 boys.
“Besides the affirmative action on needy and vulnerable children, the placement also considered the Djibouti Declaration of 2017 on Regional Refugee Education and placed learners from primary schools located within the refugee camps.”
Machogu noted that some candidates, despite having high scores, did not make any school choices.
“A total of 28,052 candidates did not make choices of schools in various categories, comprising: National 222, Extra County 4,837, County 8,716 and Sub-county 14,277. Among these were 683 candidates from Wanjohi sub-county in Nyandarua and 330 from Kopsiro sub-county in Bungoma County,” the CS stated.
He said the situation presented the ministry with a dilemma, as they sought to ensure that every candidate had a placement that would enable them to continue their education seamlessly.
“A decision was therefore reached to place these candidates in public sub-county secondary schools that were nearest to their former primary schools,” he said.
He added that they were faced with placement challenges, particularly in certain counties where there was insufficient.
He said some learners from seven counties were placed in schools located in neighbouring counties.
He said the counties included Nairobi, where 27,995 were placed in neighbouring counties, Kwale (9,185), Narok (8,236), Kilifi (7,800), Mombasa (4,662), Kajiado (3,396) and Isiolo (733).
