Kenya Universities and College Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) has urged teachers to work closely with their students in order to identify their future careers and advise them accordingly
Speaking during an open career day held at Kirinyaga University on March 30, 2023, KUCCPS Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Agnes Mercy Wahome observed that during selection of courses, students who score higher grades get confused compared to those with lower grades on what exactly they want to be.
Dr. Wahome revealed that students who get a mean grade of A and A- in KCSE are open to do any course at the university, but lack clear career guidance.
“Try working with them and find out what is their passion, what are they good at, and their strong areas,” the CEO urged teachers.
This comes at a time anxiety is building over the placement of more than 880,000 students who sat last year’s KCSE.
Nevertheless, the placement body has advised both students and parents to continue checking its official communication platforms for updates on when the application portal will be opened.
The selection exercise for courses at colleges and universities usually begins at the secondary school level before the KCSE results are released.
Teachers, especially those in charge of career departments, are usually expected to guide their candidates to ensure they prudently select degree, diploma, certificate and artisan programmes depending on their passion and academic abilities.
However, during the release of the 2021/2022 placement cycle, former Education CS the late Prof. George Magoha directed KUCCPS to roll out a campaign in all parts of the country to sensitize candidates, teachers and parents on the correct process of course selection to ensure candidates make the right choices.
This is because there is low participation by schools in the process whereby during that cycle, only 2,506 (24 per cent) schools submitted their candidates’ choices out of a total of 10,437 registered examination centres.
Further, there are continued cases where candidates, perhaps for lack of proper guidance, end up selecting competitive courses in all the four available slots; meaning that the candidate will have minimized their chances of enrolling for other good courses should they not qualify for their primary choices.
A total of 881,416 candidates sat the 2022 KCSE examination; 443,644 were male while 437,772 were female, representing 50.33 per cent and 49.67 per cent of the total candidature respectively.
There were 1,146 (0.13 per cent) candidates who obtained an overall Grade A compared to 1,138 (0.14 per cent) in 2021. A paltry 271 of them were female and 875 were male.
6,407 scored grade A-, out of whom 1,962 were girls while 4,445 were boys. There were a total 15,682 candidates who scored grade B+ (6,104 girls and 9,578 boys), while grade B scorers were 31,303 (13,520 girls and 17,783 boys).
Those with B- were 48,719 (21,474 girls and 27,245 boys), as 70,088 scored C+ (33,138 girls and 36,950 boys).
All these combined numbered 173,345 (19.03 per cent) compared to 145,776 (17.55 per cent) in 2021.
Initially, Dr. Wahome noted that the placement body will need about two and half months to complete the process of making career choices.
She noted that already KUCCPS has received candidates’ results from the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) and the universities and colleges capacities have been validated by regulators.
While releasing the results on January 20, 2023, Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ezekiel Machogu directed KUCCPS to move with speed and establish the number of places available in universities, colleges and TVET institutions to enable the immediate commencement of the placement exercise.
He further directed the placement service to engage with higher education regulatory bodies, notably the Commission for University Education (CUE) and the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVETA), to ensure that all learning institutions are prepared to enroll the new students in view of the 100 per cent transition policy.
By Roy Hezron
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