More than 178,000 students who sat their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams last year have not taken up their Form One slots in the admission that ended on Friday last week, dealing blow to government’s 100 percent transition policy.
Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed said out of the 1,052,364 students selected to join Form One this year, only 873,463 (83 percent) were captured in the National Education Management Information System (Nemis).
But Ms Mohamed said the ministry is working closely with stakeholders to ensure the remaining students take up their slots before the first term ends.
In addition, the CS said they are studying Nemis data to determine which schools and gender were most affected.
“The Nemis system has given the government real time numbers on admission of students into secondary schools, including those who sought changes to the initial admission data the ministry had provided,” she said.
Earlier, the CS had directed county and regional directors of education to engage local administrators to ensure all candidates join Form One.
TRANSITION POLICY
During this year’s Form One reporting, up to 106,000 transfers were approved by the ministry from their previous allocated schools to their schools of preference.
The number of Form One students increased this year by 91,586 students from the 781, 877 who joined secondary schools last year but the transition remained the same at 83 percent.
In 2017, 942,021 students who sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination were selected to join Form One.
The government introduced the universal transition programme in 2018 hoping that all learners will get access to basic education.
Consequently, the ministry introduced the online data system to help track and capture the number of students joining secondary schools.
The system has also been effective for determining the amount of money disbursed to schools by the ministry.