New dawn as 2017 KCPE class begins life in secondary school

Thousands of last year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination candidates will from today start a new life in secondary schools.

Goldalyn Kakuya, who topped in the examination, will join the Kenya High School, while the second best candidate, Sharon Murega, will join Alliance Girls High School.

Goldalyn studied at St Anne Junior School Lubao in Kakamega County and scored 455 marks in the exam, while Sharon studied at Kathigiri Boarding Primary School in Meru and scored 447 marks.

SLOTS

The 993,718 candidates have until Friday to take up their slots, even as the government assured them that it has disbursed funds to support free day secondary education.

However, a number of students may not join schools they were invited to. For the last one month many parents have been lobbying to have their children allowed to join schools of choice.

A good number succeeded but others will be waiting for slots in prestigious schools after Friday, when all students are expected to have reported.

On Monday, most parents across the country were busy buying required items for their children ahead of today’s expected trip to school.

The government said it has released Sh29 billion to help achieve a 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary school.

Similarly, the government said it has released Sh7.5 billion for printing and supply of six core textbooks.

TUITION

“The funds disbursed to schools will cover tuition and other operations as per guidelines for each student enrolled in secondary schools irrespective of whether they are sub-county, county, extra-county or national schools,” said Education Principal Secretary Belio Kispang.

The students will also be provided with six core books under a government scheme. The subjects covered are Mathematics, English, Kiswahili, Chemistry, Physics and Biology.

A total of 29,411 students will join 103 national schools, 123,399 students will join 531 extra county schools while 142,358 students will report to 1,031 county schools.

More than 680,000 students will join sub-county schools, special schools will get 892 while 69,880 students will join private schools.

A total of 19 schools in Nairobi will admit 1,350 students to their day wings. However, some of the schools have expressed unwillingness to take the students this year.

The schools that will have day wings are Kenya High School, Starehe Boys Centre, Moi Forces Academy, Nairobi School, Lenana School, Pangani Girls High School and Moi Girls Secondary School - Nairobi.

BED SPACE

Others are Ngara Girls, Buruburu Girls, Embakasi Girls, Parklands Arya Girls, Nembu Girls, Dagoretti High School, Lang’ata High School, Upper Hill Secondary School, St

George’s Girls Secondary School, State House Girls, Hospital Hill High School and Ofafa Jericho High School.

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

Dr Kipsang insisted that national schools and extra-county schools in the urban centres of Nairobi, Nakuru, Mombasa, Kisumu and Eldoret will charge Sh53,554 for boarding.

All other boarding schools will charge Sh40,435.

“The Ministry wishes to advise all Form One students to be ready to report to the schools they have been selected to,” added Dr Kipsang.