Monday, January 2, 2012

Private schools fear missing national slots



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THE Private Schools Association has warned of a possible move by the government to discriminate standard eight candidates from private schools during form one selection to national secondary schools. Education PS James Kiyiapi has stated that the ministry is analyzing the number of candidates who qualified for national schools slots.
He has further stated that the selection criteria of public and private schools candidates would be made known on January 6. The association's secretary Ggeneral John Mwai said any attempt by the PS to discriminate private school's candidates would be resisted. Mwai said there was an earlier agreement via a circular to use the county population of candidates to distribute national secondary schools form one selections slots.
But Kiyiapi has since maintained that the 2011 mode of selection where public schools candidates were favoured during selection in the then 18 national schools would be sustained. Mwai said: “I do not understand why the PS wants to use a boardroom meeting to analyze the numbers and come up with another selection criteria.”
Unlike 2010 where 2, 723 candidates scored above 400 marks, 2011 has 5, 806 candidates. Last year private schools were allocated 1, 224 vacancies in national schools while public schools got 3, 293 out of the total 4, 517. The government has since elevated 30 provincial secondary schools to national level so as to accommodate more students from both private and public primary schools. 
Mwai threatened to go to court if PS Kiyiapi repeats the discrimination meted on private students in 2011 despite the additional 30 national schools. He sought to know if Sessional Paper No. 1 of 2005, Article 4 which liberalized education has changed. The paper provided access of education to the private sector, Mwai said.

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