Students report to Form One as national schools start day units

Form One students admitted to various schools in Nairobi County have started reporting for the first term of their secondary education.

The students are a mixture of those reporting to boarding and day units after the Ministry of Education introduced the latter category in especially in national schools which previously did not have day scholars.

At Ngara Girls High School, Deputy Principal Josephine Kisali said that they were allocated two streams of day scholars and so far the students have started reporting.

"We are currently admitting the students but we don't know how many will come because they have four days to do so. We also still have three vacancies for day scholars,” said Ms Kisali.

At Pangani Girls, it was a beehive of activities as students escorted by their parents thronged the school for admission.

However, the administration was not willing to talk to journalists saying that they were busy trying to expedite the process.

At Starehe Boys Centre, Director Charles Masheti said that they are not admitting day scholars due to some challenges that they have discussed with the Ministry of Education.

He added that currently, they have 280 students in Form One.

"We have 280 Form Ones who are all in boarding as we are currently not admitting day scholars because of our policy which will face challenges if we allow day scholars," said Mr Masheti.

At State House Girls School, deputy principal, academics, Mr Wamocha Khakane, said they are currently admitting Form Ones in the boarding section with the day scholars expected to report on Thursday.

He said they have 330 boarders and 110 day scholars.

He added that they have received requests from day scholars who want to be boarders but the dormitories are currently full.

"We are only admitting boarders today with day scholars to report on Thursday. We [have been] forced to have eight streams in Form One to accommodate the day scholars," said Mr Wamocha.

THARAKA-NITHI

In Tharaka-Nithi, admission of Form One students Tuesday went on smoothly in various secondary schools in the County.

At Chuka Girls High School, the admission started exactly at 9am and involved inspection of academic and personal items and issuance of uniforms and bedding.

Speaking to Nation, the school’s Principal Florence Mutwiri said the exercise was running smoothly and hoped that all those admitted would have reported by 4pm.

However, she said they were yet to receive books from the Education ministry but added that county officials had informed her that the books had already been delivered at the sub-county offices.

An exited Yvonne Mwenda, one of the new students, said she was happy with her new school and hoped she will perform well after four years of study.