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Top city schools that will start admitting day scholars today


National schools selected to open up day wings will start admitting day scholars today.

The Ministry of Education has directed schools to start admitting Form One students starting today until Monday.

The schools that will be admitting the day scholars are Kenya High School, Starehe Boys Centre, Moi Forces Academy, Nairobi School, Lenana School, Pangani Girls High School and Moi Girls Secondary School, Nairobi.

Others are Ngara Girls Secondary School, Buruburu Girls High School, Embakasi Girls, Arya Parklands, Nembu Girls High School, Dagoretti High School, Lang’ata Secondary School, Upper Hill, St George’s Girls, State House Girls, Hospital Hill and Ofafa Jericho.

BED SPACE

According to the ministry, the move will boost capacity and delink admission to bed space under the free secondary education plan that is expected to increase Form One enrollment to above one million students.

The opening of day wings is part of the government’s plan to have a 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary school.

On Wednesay, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said Treasury had allocated Sh29 billion to facilitate the rolling out of free secondary school education.

While releasing the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) 2017 results, Dr Matiang’i announced that all the 993,718 candidates are expected to join Form One.

The number is a 25 per cent  increase from the students that were admitted to secondary schools last year .

POOR STANDARDS

A total of 790,680 students joined secondary schools across the country last year. The students were admitted amid concerns over number of teachers, classrooms and materials that do not match the numbers as well as poor standards.

The CS said the ministry had established mechanisms to ensure that more students are enrolled in school.

Dr Matiang’i said opening of day wings in existing boarding schools, especially in Nairobi, is meant to maximise the use of available resources as well as delink admission from bed capacity.  Other interventions include expanding capacities of existing schools to create places.

INFRASTRUCTURE GRANTS

He said the government had dedicated infrastructure grants amounting to Sh6.4 billion to 2,710 regular and 30 special needs secondary schools.

The grants had led to construction of 2,740 classrooms, 349 laboratories and 326 blocks of sanitation facilities, among others. Some of these facilities are complete while others will be completed this year.

The government is also involved in development of secondary schools through the Constituency Development Fund. However, the ministry is yet to explain the criteria used to select the schools.