Apart from the more than 60,000 Form Four leavers who had not applied for university and technical institute placements on the morning of May 6 when KUCCPS applicants were closing, there are millions others who may not know what to do with their Form Four certificates from as early as the year 2000.
According to the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS), no Form Four leaver should be left behind as Kenyans choose higher education courses.
Well, the application closed on May 6, but there is another opportunity beginning on May 16 that the applicants should seize to revise their choices if they failed in the first attempt. It is also during the revisions that those who did not apply at all will get another chance to seek a chance of joining a university or a technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institution.
The revision period will run from May 16 to May 22, following the student placement tradition. The revision is not paid for, but applicants should use their e-Citizen code used in the initial attempt.
While that is what the placement routine dictates, the 2025 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidates should do everything possible to apply for the more than 1.4 million slots at colleges and universities. It is a lifetime opportunity that is worth grabbing and turning to gold as the world continues to embrace skills acquisition and pay the skilled handsomely. And, that is how to add value to the Form Four certificate.
“For those who may not meet today’s (May 6, 2026) deadline or fail to secure their initial choices, there will be a second chance: No student will be left behind,” said Dr Mercy Wahome, the KUCCPS chief executive, in her last call for Kenyans to apply.
No student will be left behind! This is the rarest appeal that ought to jolt those who have not applied to hungrily grab the artisan, certificate, diploma and degree courses.
According to the placement agency, 268,714 candidates made the cut for direct university programmes, but only 207,308 had applied on May 6 morning, missing the deadline after a full month of a campaign that started on April 7. This means 61,406 had not applied. A big number that may become lost opportunities and a chance to build the country.
Positively, the last 12 hours would be a hive of activity as the last-mine rushers push their own boundaries to clinch a university training chance here and a TVET offer there. However, it is possible that such candidates may disappear without a trace.
It is also possible that of the 61,000, some could have applied for courses at TVETs or polytechnics going by the trend in Kenya where those with university entry eligibility were going for certificate or diploma in the search for their dream careers that their KCSE grades do not guarantee.
KUCCPS has revealed that there were 322,396 slots at universities and more than one million training chances at VET institutions. The government has allowed Form Four leavers who sat for the KCSE exam from as early as 2025 to apply for TVET courses, perhaps the best evidence yet that it does not wish to leave anyone behind in the skills growth race. They could also apply for degree courses at the Open University of Kenya.
Last year, KUCCPS revealed a sad state of affairs: that it could not trace more than 700,000 who sat for the Form Four national exam in 2024.
In the past it has been suggested in various forums that the Sh1,500 application fees that KUCCPS charges could be barring many candidates from their dream careers at a time Kenya is firming its 100 percent transition right from primary school.
Among other proposals, it has been a suggestion that the application fees be collected by the training institutions as part of fees, thus opening another window for those who cannot afford to pay.
In due course, KUCCPS will reveal the provisional results of the just ended application that will also reveal the number of applicants who did not secure a course of choice. This means that the one week allowed for revision and fresh applications will see jostling, considering the more than 60,000 that had not applied by May 6.
Once the application and revision are concluded, the candidates will enter the phase of transfers for which the placement agency has been charging Sh1,000.
