Kabianga topples Nanyuki as most preferred high school
Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu during the release of the Form One students placement results for the 2022 KCPE candidates at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) on January 16, 2023. PHOTO | LUCY WANJIRU | NMG
Kericho County's Kabianga High School has overtaken Nanyuki High as the institution that was selected the most as the preferred school of choice for Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination candidates, amid limited accommodation capacity.
Data from the Ministry of Education shows Kabianga attracted 153,074 applicants among the 2022 KCPE exam candidates against an absorption capacity of 768 –dwarfing applications for slots in top-performing institutions such as Alliance High School and Alliance Girls.
Nanyuki High School received 148,827 applications against its 576 slots, followed by Nyandarua High School (137,511), Pangani Girls (119,265) and Maseno School (105,540) despite available slots falling below 720.
“The results of the above means many candidates will not get their choices and have to accept that it is not possible to be placed in your “dream” school,” Mr Machogu said on Monday during the release of Form One placement results at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).
The number of applicants surpassing the available slots is an indication that a huge number of students missed out on their preferred national schools.
Mr Machogu maintained that the placement for the 1.2 million candidates was based on choice, merit and availability of place.
The data shows some 38,972 candidates that sat the exam have been admitted to national schools highlighting a slight increase from last year’s 38,797 while extra county schools took in 228, 160 compared to 214,960 the year before.
“In the placement, all candidates who scored 400 marks and above were placed in National or Extra County schools of their choice,” he said.
The number of candidates who scored 400 marks and above in KCPE dropped 20.36 per cent compared to the previous test.
A total of 9,443 candidates scored 400 marks in the exam compared, which was a dip compared to the 11,857 registered in the 2021 KCPE.
The drop in performance was attributed to lower performance in Sciences, Mathematics and Social Studies, in the test where the candidate with the highest marks scored 431.
County schools took in 199,027, sub-county schools picked 762,610 while special-need schools absorbed 1,819 candidates.
The data shows two-thirds of candidates from Nairobi could not be placed within the county due to inadequate slots and had to be posted in other counties.
Nairobi was among 14 counties that have limited capacities to accommodate all the candidates that sat the exam in their centres.
