Up to 636,297 students who sat for KCSE in 2023 failed to apply for placement in higher institutions of learning according to data released by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS).
This is despite the availability of vacancies in the higher institutions of learning exceeding the number of students who sat for KCSE in 2023.
According to KUCCPS CEO Agnes Wahome, there were 1,078,806 cumulative approved capacities against 895,232 students.
Wahome on Tuesday while releasing the University, college and TVET placements announced that only 258,935 students out of 895,232 were able to secure placement across all programmes offered.
Out of the 1,078,806 approved cumulative capacities, 278,006 were for universities, 769,820 capacities in TVET colleges, 13,808 for Teachers Training Colleges and 17,172 were for KMTCs.
In a bid to ensure all learners apply for courses, KUCCPS adopted a multi-agency approach to mobilise and support applicants.
"We trained cybercafe attendants in all Huduma Centres, trained officers from 163 training institutions across the country and assigned placement officers to support the exercise in the 47 Counties," Wahome said.
Public University had the highest placement with 134,743 learners followed by MoE TVETs with 63,921 students.
KMTCs had the third largest placement with 19,653 students and Private University had the fourth largest placement with 18,558 students.
KUCCPS said those placed in universities have up to June 5 to apply for inter-university transfers.
Other than the 2023 KCSE cohort, KUCCPS in this cycle placed Form Four leavers from 2000 to 2023 in TVET institutions.
Form Four leavers from between 2014 and 2023 were placed in KMTC institutions.
Additionally, the placement results revealed that more boys than girls have secured places in universities for degree courses.
"Male applicants continued to dominate placement to Degree programmes, sustaining a trend that has been observed since the beginning of the central placement system," Wahome said.
"In contrast, female students were the majority of those placed in TVET, from the 2020/2021 Cycle to the present."
Another key highlight from the 2024 placement was that the Bachelor of Education programme attracted the highest number of applicants.
