The 2024 Form One selection for 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidates has begun.
Speaking during the release of the 2023 KCPE results at Mitihani House in Nairobi, Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu announced that the Form One placement will begin on November 27.
“The placement process will start on Monday, November 27, 2023, and conclude within a period of two weeks this would allow parents and guardians adequate time to prepare their children to join form one in the year 2024,” he said.
Also read; How to Change Form One Placement, Selection, Results
The CS announced that a well-established computerized system to deliver credible and unbiased placement results to realise 100 per cent transition for the 1,406,557 candidates.
“Already the Ministry has developed a fair and transparent system for Form One placement to ensure national, regional and socio-economic balance is achieved,” he said.
Merit, school choice and affirmative action are some of the criteria used to place students in Form One.
“All parents should take advantage of the 100 per cent transition policy to enroll their children in form one,” Machogu urged parents, expressing confidence in the government’s preparedness to see the implementation of the 100 per cent policy.
Candidates who score 400 marks and above get selected to national schools. There were 8,523 candidates who attained and surpassed the mark this year. National schools have a capacity of 5,570 learners. At least 352,782 other candidates scored between 300 and 399 marks while those ranging between 200 and 299 marks were the majority (658,278).
Since the 2023 exams mark the end of the KCPE examinations, Machogu also announced the government’s plan to offer special exams in January next year, 2024, to candidates who missed the 2023 KCPE exams.
“The indicative figure we have at the moment for those who were not able to sit for the examination is 9,354 candidates and we have given them the opportunity to sit for our next examinations in January so that they will be able to join form one,” CS Machogu announced.
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How Form One selection is done
Form one selection is based on learner’s secondary school choices, overall performance, individual performance, affirmative action type of school they attended (whether public or private). Private schools have often protested bias against their candidates in the selection process.
During selection, choices for schools, learners and parents are known to shun national schools that were recently upgraded. Candidates are required to make four choices of national schools and three of extra-county schools. They are then supposed to select two county and two sub-county institutions which accommodate more than 70 percent of the candidates.
All learners in public secondary schools qualify for sponsorship through the Free Day Secondary Education programme at Sh22,244.
How to get 2024 Form One Selection Results.
To get form one selection results, leaners or parents will send an SMS to the Ministry’s SMS Code service. Thereafter, candidates access and download admission letters from the Ministry of Education portal. The Form Ones will report after the continuing students, but this is expected within the month of January 2024.