The National Parents Association has expressed its concern over the number of private schools missing from the governments’ junior secondary selection portal.
With only months to go before more than 1.6 million students join junior secondary schools from Grade 6, the association said that some of the major schools were not on the portal.
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha extended the selection deadline from August 30 to September 10.
The association said that the situation had been worsened by failure to complete the new Competency-Based Curriculum classrooms on time, raising fears of space in the coming days.
The worries were pointed by the newly elected NPA secretary general Eskimos Kobia who said that the missing information had affected the selection process.
“We have come to learn that tens of private schools are missing from the selection portal thus locking out hundreds of students from picking their preferred junior secondary,” he said.
Kobia further said on Tuesday that there was confusion over the ongoing selection in the ministry portal, adding that there was an urgent need for stakeholders’ engagement.
“We shall in the coming days engage the ministry on the issue of listing all junior secondary schools, the issue of school fees and the completion of the classrooms on time,” he said.
He gave an example of Naivasha where each school was benefiting from one new classroom in the first phase yet there were more than 400 students in Grade 6 in most of the public schools.
Nakuru county director of education Fredrick Osewe was, however, quick to note that all public schools in the county were in the portal.
He also said that those private schools missing out on the portal had not met the set standards by the Ministry of Education.
“We have over 180 public schools from the county in the portal and we are in the second phase of construction CBC classes,” Osewe said.
Last week while on a tour of Kiambu, Magoha extended the selection date while noting that the majority of the students had already completed the selection process.
“Plans for Grade 6 pupils to join junior secondary school in January 2023 are still in place and we have fast-tracked the construction of the classrooms,” he said.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
