The government has reiterated the need for schools to ensure Form Four candidates apply for higher learning courses before sitting for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams by highlighting the benefits of what is known as ‘centre application’.
In school, the students have a chance of consulting their teachers who have stayed with them throughout the four years and giving them career advice, the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) has said ahead of the November 30 centre application deadline.
The centre applications run for more than two months, having started on September 19. The KCSE exams started on November 21 with the technical subjects such as French, carpentry, art and design, electricity, and music. Other papers, including the compulsory subjects like mathematics and the sciences, start on December 2 and run for the entire month.
“The teachers have been with them since they were in Form One, hence are in a good place to provide the learners with insights about their strengths, weaknesses and talents,” says KUCCPS chief executive Dr Mercy Wahome in a journal write-up published on Thursday.
Every year after the KCSE results are released, the placement agency invites the Form Four graduates to apply for and revise artisan, craft, certificate, diploma and degree courses based on their KCSE exam grades.
Increasingly, many schools, families and the learners are opting for applications after the results are released instead of the revisions.Applications after sitting the exams attract Sh1,500 while course and institution transfers are charged at Sh1,000. The KUCCPS also charges Freshers between Sh1,500 and Sh2,000 on admission.Dr Wahome says applying for the courses in school gives a candidate a more informed revision.
She says: “Students who started thinking about their career early (at school) tend to make more informed choices at the revision stage, having had a longer time to think over their options”.Schools, the placement boss adds, have the much needed tools and information resources, including internet and career teachers to guide the learners.
Outside the schools, a big number of candidates will have no or limited access to these resources, she says, pointing out the disadvantages are some of the barriers to careers and success in life.
In the past, the Ministry of Education has faulted the schools for the low centre application, but it appears the campaigns to register students for the courses in school are yet to blossom, partly with the incessant calls from the KUCCPS. There are 10,516 KCSE examination centres while 884,263 students will be sitting for the exams that take them to technical institutes, polytechnics, and universities.
There are 39 public universities, 31 private ones, 11 national polytechnics, 32 diploma primary teacher trainers, three diploma secondary teacher training colleges and more than 200 technical training institutes.While the government says there are training opportunities for all the KCSE candidates, more than 500,000 never applied for the courses in the last national exams.
While 826,807 did the examinations, only 145,145 were picked to join various universities while another 126,089 were picked for technical institutes and polytechnics.The KUCCPS allows everyone who did the Form Four exam in the last 21 years to apply for the courses periodically, offering hundreds of thousands a chance to train.
