CS Magoha to monitor form one selection exercise across the Country

The Ministry of Education now says Parents and guardians with students joining form one next will only pay the amount of fees set by the Ministry.

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has also urged parents to report incidents where students are turned away for not paying higher fees to their respective Regional Education Directors, County Directors of Education, TSC County Directors or Sub-County Directors for action.

Magoha says he will lead senior Ministry officials on a nationwide monitoring exercise to ensure that Form One students are joining the schools they were selected to and that fee guidelines are strictly adhered to.

Either Magoha says cases of lethargy among the RDEs, CDEs and SCDEs will also be dealt administratively.

He implored on the members of the public to report any cases of learners who fail to join form one and file complaints of excessive fees and levies with the Ministry.

According to the CS, the Government will continue to provide Free Day Secondary Education grants per learner for tuition, operations and infrastructure improvement, and the funds will be disbursed to schools based on enrollment uploaded by principals on National Education Management Information System (NEMIS).

“I urge all Principals and Boards of Management to ensure that these funds are used for intended purposes. This will enable us to further the attainment of 100 per cent transition, improve the learning environment and ensure the right to education is achieved.”

The CS said the Government remains committed to ensuring that every learner transits from primary to secondary school and the Ministry will continue working with the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government to facilitate the enrollment of every child in secondary school.

National administrative arms will work with county and sub-county education officials to ensure that no child is locked out of secondary education owing to factors removed from their ability to access education. Magoha said.

He further says through the Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project (SEQIP), the Ministry will offer scholarships for 9,000 candidates who sat the KCPE examinations this year as part of the process of accelerating the 100 per cent transition policy.

“I am happy to announce that the Ministry on Friday opened up the process of applying for the scholarships, a window that closes on December 16th, 2019. I urge all qualified candidates to apply for consideration for the scholarships.” The CS Said.

A total of 1,083,456 candidates sat 2019 KCPE, out of which 1,075,201 have been placed in secondary schools.

Magoha says top schools that are the envy of these candidates have no capacity to admit all of them and the Ministry has opted to place learners from these Counties to schools in neighboring Counties and not in their choices.

Form One placements for National and Extra-County schools can be accessed by texting the candidate’s index number to 22263 while Soft/hard copies for each school will be availed to Principals and County Directors of Education.

The launch of respective County Form One selection will be held on 4th December 2019, when lists of Extra-County and County schools will be released. This will be followed by Sub County Schools placement on 6th December.

All private schools must complete their selection by 16th December 2019 and file returns through NEMIS.