The stage is set for the behind-the-scene activity for the secondary schools in Trans Nzoia County as the Kenya Junior Secondary School Assessment (KJSEA) results are set for release this week.
Focus will be shifting to more than 200 junior secondary schools in the county including three national institutions as the KJSEA results are to made public on December 11 in preparation for the first batch of admission of the Grade 10 under the new CBE system.
Basic Education PS Julius Bitok had said that the KJSEA results would be announced in good time before the Christmas and New year holidays and the placement for the Grade 10 be undertaken within a week’s time, ready for opening of schools for the 2026 academic year next January.
Better known for good performance in both academics and extra-curriculum activities, the local secondary schools have always attracted national attention when it comes to the competition in national exams as well as for sports.
The main watch will be targeted at St Josephs’ Boys, St Brigids’ Girls and St Anthonys’ Boys as the national schools that have excelled in exams and sports up to the East and Central Africa region.
St Anthony under senior principal Simon Masibo was included in the national schools bracket last year as the Ministry of Education (MoE) carried survey for the upgrading of the learning institutions in readiness for the kick-off the Grade 10 classes.
During the phased-out Form one intake within the outgoing 8-4-4 education system, the three national schools witnessed under-table deals, lobbying and canvassing for their children, friends and relatives to secure admission with some parents falling prey to con men with fake admission letters.
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The other public schools that will be of great interest in the admission of the Grade 10 will be St Joseph’s Girls, Goseta Boys, Bwake Boys, Kitale School, St Monicah’s Girls, Kesogon Mixed and Sinoko. These county schools have also raised their academic standards on the national grid as well as sports. In the private category include Sagero Adventist and St Anne’s Kiminini which have continued to compete favorably with the public counterparts.
According to the (MoE),it is compulsory for national schools to admit students from the three pathways of subjects of STEM-maths, biology, chemistry, physics, computer and engineering, Arts and Sports; and Social Sciences which have history, CRE, business studies, Geography.
According to the Trans Nzoia Kuppet and Kessha, the local secondary schools could admit up to 9 000 Grade 10 learners with the provision of expansion and what was only being awaited was the allocation of teachers for their relevant subjects.
According to the new admission regulations, at least 10 learners from each Sub-county with the gender observation, will be admitted automatically to boarding schools they had chosen. But with the increased annual flat fees of Ksh of 53,000 per students annually, some of the called students end up not reporting thus flooding the scramble to fill the vacancies.
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Kuppet chairman Eliud Wafula said though some schools had excess teachers for individual subjects, the matter was being handled by the TSC to rationalize the staffing of teachers between the rural and urban areas.
Wafula noted that the resistance of the movement of teachers due to domestic and internal environment coupled with the discrimination for house allowance for teachers in the rural and urban areas had devastated the imbalance of the te achers.
Area Governor George Natembeya, while decrying the limited places in the local national schools has suggested for the opening of separate streams in the learning institutions for the admission of students from the county.
Natembeya noted that since the local government as a stakeholder of education had earmarked assistance to the three national through bursaries and land for expansion, the local students should be accorded at 30% right of admission
Under the CBE, no certificate will be issued to the KJSEA graduates until after the Grade 12 where the will be granted the Kenya Certificate of Basic Education (KCBE) which will determine their entrance to university and TVET.
BY Abisai Amugune
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