No direct admission of Form Ones, CS Amina tells principals

Form One students who will obtain admission letters directly from principals will not be captured in the National Education Management Information System (Nemis), Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed has warned.

The CS cautioned principals against issuing admission letters to parents visiting their institutions, noting that students whose details will not be captured in Nemis will be deemed not to have joined secondary schools.

ILLEGALITY

The CS said direct issuance of admission letters is illegal.

“Schools must admit students only through Nemis, no school should violate the ministry guidelines,” she said.

Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said no principal should issue admission letters to students directly.

He noted that the letters which will not have been downloaded from the ministry's website will be viewed as illegal documents and will not be used to admit Form One students to secondary schools.

He said once students report to the schools, principals will be required to send the details to the ministry for confirmation.

“Only letters that have been downloaded from the admissions website are valid,” said Dr Kipsang. Ms Mohammed instructed regional, county and sub-county education officers to take action against any national, extra-county or county school that will violate the directive.

She said on the reporting day, schools will admit students using their Nemis accounts.

EFFECTS

Ms Mohamed said any deviation shall only be sanctioned by the ministry.

“Students without Unique Personal Identifier (UPI) numbers will be expected to be issued with the same as soon as possible and not later than one month. Since enrolment data is from the system, schools are informed that the process should not be circumvented at all,” she said.

She said, all schools, public and private must admit through Nemis.

The announcement is likely to affect thousands of students whose parents have obtained admission letters to join different schools other than the ones they have been placed.

Some of the students likely to be affected are those placed in national, extra-county and county schools but cannot afford to pay fees. Others are students who have been admitted to day schools or institutions far from their counties.

TRACKING

Previously, parents have obtained admission letters for their children’s preferred schools from principals.

However, the CS said, once the Form One students report and are admitted to schools, their details will be captured online.

She said the system will be used to account for every learner as it will be the central point of admission data.

“This way, we will get real time information for the students as they report,” she said.

The students are expected to start reporting from January 7 to January 11.