Nearly 43,000 pupils who sat for the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination have secured places in national schools as Form One studies start on January 15.
Joining the top schools will be 22,051 boys and 20,876 girls as the usual big guns, led by Kabianga High School, attracted the most requests from the Class 8 learners. According to the Ministry of Education, Kabianga leads the pack with 186,357 applications while it has a capacity for 672 students.
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All the candidates who scored 400 marks and above will get either national or extra-county schools.
Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu on Monday announced that 1,400,329 learners will be admitted to various schools as the KCPE era comes to an end after close to four decades.
Mr Machogu said 717,358 are boys while girls are 682,971.
Apart from Kabianga, some of the other much sought institutions are Kapsabet Boys, Mang’u –that the top candidate targeted and got–, Alliance High, Alliance Girls, Pangani Girls and Nanyuki High.
Extra-county schools will admit 141,590 boys and 133,156 girls while the county schools will get 288,201, comprising 129,332 boys and 158,869 girls.
A total of 792,230 have been admitted to sub-county schools, taking 423,171 boys and 369,059 girls.
Some 2,225 candidates with special needs have been placed to relevant institutions as Mr Machogu explained that careful consideration was given to placing them in either disability-specific or regular schools.
The CS said 14,426 vulnerable and marginalised learners who scored 280 and above will benefit from government support while those with special needs and disabilities that scored 280 and below will also get the Elimu scholarships.
Elimu, which supports 52,000 learners, is awarded in partnership with the Jomo Kenyatta Foundation and the Equity Group Foundation.
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