Form one selection to commence in May
Candidates who sat this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations will know the secondary schools they will join in May.
Education Cabinet Secretary Professor George Magoha on Thursday while releasing this year’s result said Form One selection would start on May 28.
“All the 1,187,517 candidates who sat the 2020 exams will transition to secondary schools, placement will be done based on merit, CS Magoha announces,” he said.
The candidates whose results were released on Wednesday afternoon form the fourth cohort to be admitted to secondary schools under the 100 percent transition policy.
The CS said there were enough Form One places to allow all who did the examinations to join secondary school.
“I wish to assure the country that the Ministry has already conducted an audit of all new and existing vacancies in all our private and public schools to enable us to admit all learners under the Free Day Secondary Education programme. We are determined to work with the relevant agencies to ensure that no candidate misses a place in secondary school,” he added.
The CS said that the performance of the 2020 KCPE candidates was commendable with no remarkable difference from the previous years.
“Entry assessment tests when schools resumed played a key role in assessing the preparedness of the candidates,” he said.
Of the over one million candidates, 9,770 scored over 400 marks while 243,320 attained between 301 and 400 marks. 586,886 pupils attained between 201 and 300 marks while 262,307 candidates had between 101 and 200 marks. On the other hand, 1,173 pupils had 100 marks and below.
Special needs candidates (2,407) performed better than in 2018 with the top candidate scoring 414 marks.
For a second year running, the Government will offer 9,000 scholarships under the Elimu Scholarship Programme, which was initiated in 2019. Reports from all our public schools show that the 2019 KCPE candidates who benefitted from the programme are doing exceptionally well in the schools they were admitted to.
“I wish to sincerely thank His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta for his intervention that enabled us to extend the scholarship programme to cover candidates from informal settlements in urban areas, which were initially not covered under the programme,” he added.
Schools will open for Third Term on May 10 as scheduled except for all classes except grade four and form one still under strict Covid-19 control measures that were introduced last month by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“As a result, we are scheduled to reopen schools for Third Term on May 10 2021 for all classes except Grade Four and Form One. We are hopeful that we will open as scheduled although we continue monitoring the country’s Covid-19 situation and the schools’ preparedness to adhere to all Ministry of Health guidelines of managing the virus.