Form One Placement: Parents Protest The Unfair Placement
While parents are protesting against the unfair Form One placement Cabinet Secretary Professor George Magoha is saying that he is proud of the entire process.
The protest comes amid many revelations that students were placed in day schools hundreds of kilometres away from their homes.
Other than being placed in day schools far from home, most students were placed in schools they never selected as they have never even heard of such schools.
For instance, a student who did the KCPE examination in Coast region has been called to a day secondary school in Western region. The child scored three hundred and forty seven marks (347). The school she was called to join is a day school in vihiga county.
The parent said that if the school was a boarding school they could have given it a consideration. But being a day school it is out of question as they can not take their child that far where they don’t have relatives where she can stay.
Celine, a parent in western region, said her daughter has been called to join Lamu Day School in Lamu county.
Another example is that of a parent in Uasin Gishu whose child did the examination in Eldoret but has been selected to join a day school in Nakuru.
But the PS Julius Jwan in his defense said that the mishap could have been caused by poor recording of school codes. He goes ahead and says that, they are but afew isolated cases. He has called upon parents to visit Sub-County offices where they can be assisted.
However, the PS blamed poor choice of schools for some of the issues the parents are complaining about.
‘‘A child may choose big schools and end up missing all of them. In such a scenario, the child will be placed in any school instead of leaving him/her without being placed as long as the school is not too far from where the child did the exams,’’ Dr Jwan said.
