Saturday, January 14, 2012

Public schools get 6,600 Form I slots



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By BENJAMIN MUINDI bmuindi@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Friday, January 13  2012 at  21:25
Form One selection started on Friday despite a suit by private schools owners to halt the process.
The schools said the entire selection was “shrouded in mystery and the criteria used in choosing the candidates to national schools was an enigma.”
That notwithstanding, the Education ministry proceeded to allocate only 3,598 Form One slots in national secondary schools to the private primary schools.
The rest —6,684 —were given to pupils from public primary schools in a method minister Sam Ongeri said “promoted equity, access, national and geographical diversity.”
The slots in the national schools this year grew to 10,282, up from 4,517 last year following the addition of 30 new schools in that cadre. (READ: Bulk of national slots go to public schools)
Overall, 213,453 youths who sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exam last year missed chances to join secondary schools.
However, the number of those joining secondary schools increased by 30,633 compared to the previous year to stand at 562,761.
Out of this, 282,830 are boys while girls will take 277,911 slots this year, nearly achieving gender parity in the admission.
According to selection results released at the Kenya Institute of Education by Prof Ongeri, 358,036 will join district schools.
County schools, previous called provincial schools, will open their doors to 138,479 students while private secondary schools will admit 55,964 students.
Names of candidates selected to the 48 national schools were handed over to the respective principals of the institutions who had attended the ceremony in Nairobi.
Prof Ongeri noted that the 10,282 slots in the national schools had been divided on a ratio of 35:65 for private and public primary schools, respectively.
“Private candidates comprised 17 per cent of the KCPE candidature but were assigned 35 per cent of the places in the national schools,” he said. Private schools have faulted the selection criteria.

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