THE STANDARD
EDUCATION
Education CS George Magoha at Nairobi School on April 21, 2021. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard]
The Education ministry will conduct a single selection and placement exercise for Form One students this year.
Previous exercises opened up the process to parents and candidates to select their preferred schools in the second round of selection.
However, competition for spaces in national schools is now higher than before.
Only 8,091 candidates in the 2020 KCPE scored more than 400 marks. These will be given priority in the selection to national schools which have a capacity of about 30,000. With only 103 national schools in the country, Education CS George Magoha said the competition is real.
The 2020 national examination was unique to the fact that it took place in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, which posed a great challenge to the Education Ministry.
The Standard reported that some examiners were unable to show up for the marking exercise due to the ongoing restriction of movement in the country.
This was as a result of the partial lockdown of some counties, while others decided not to turn up due to fears of the disease. When the Covid-19 pandemic befell the country in March 2020, the education sector was one that got completely disoriented, Magoha said at Mtihani House.