Due to continuous pressure from growing senior secondary school capacity across the country, the Ministry of Education has denied almost 24,000 petitions for grade 10 placement reviews.
On the third day of the current seven-day national review process for senior school student placement, these turn-downs were made public.
Julius Bitok, the Principal Secretary for Basic Education, stated that most of the applications that were turned down either didn’t fulfill the requirements for placement based on merit or couldn’t be placed because there wasn’t enough room in the schools of choice.
Mr. Bitok went on to say that a lot of well-known and highly regarded schools continue to receive so much interest that their capacity is drastically exceeded..
As of day four of the review process, slightly over 86000 applications submitted to the online placement review system out of a total of more than 100000 applications had been processed; approximately 62000 were approved, and the remaining applications that were not approved number approximately 24000.
Students whose applications were declined will be advised to apply to alternative schools with available spaces.
The procedure for placement reviews was established to provide parents and/or learners with the opportunity to petition for a revised placement if they were unhappy with their initially assigned school or pathway of learning.
Using the review digital application, applicants can choose to apply to a maximum of four alternative schools, thus providing applicants with greater possibilities of receiving an offer at an available placement space.
Based on the number of review applications, education officials have indicated that the high volume of requests shows the popularity of specific schools and the limitations of senior secondary school facilities across the country.
Nevertheless, according to the Ministry of Education, all review processes are to be carried out fairly and openly based on the National Placement Guidelines.
The review of placements is part of the transition from Basic Education to Senior Secondary Education under the Competency-Based Curriculum.
In addition to overseeing the placement review process, the Ministry has decentralised approval authority to enable review applications to be processed quickly, with a structure where different administrative levels will approve applications based on school clusters.
In completing your review application, parents and learners are encouraged to be patient and realistic regarding their choices.
All learners entering Grade 10 are expected to report to their senior secondary schools by January 12, 2023, at which point the placement review process will be completed.