Parents in Baringo County have lauded the government through the Ministry of Education for introducing the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) programme to admit students to secondary schools.
The introduction of NEMI, the parents said has greatly reduced corruption which accompanies enrolment of form one students.
The parents among them Mr Philip Cheruiyot said previously some influential people used to bribe principals to get admission to premium schools disadvantaging children from poor families.
“Previously some parents paid money to school heads to get admissions in high profile schools where they easily slot in their children but today the system has reserved positions to all schools irrespective of where they come from and their socio-economic status,” noted Cheruiyot while taking his son to Kabarnet boys high school for admission.
He said despite the online system experiencing hitches leading to long queues, it was a welcome move since it has reserved positions of deserving students in schools of their choice irrespective of where they come from and their socio-economic backgrounds.
With just a day to the close of form one admission countrywide, Kabarnet Boys’ High school had by yesterday admitted 280 out of a list of 336 students received from the Ministry.
According to the principal Julius Ndirangu, nearly all the new students will have reported by Friday save for those whose parents have requested for extension of time to look for fees and other mandatory requirements.
Mr Ndirangu stated that due to the overwhelming enrolment, they have been forced increase the number of streams from six to seven to accommodate the huge population of new students, a move that has overstretched existing facilities especially dormitories and classrooms.
“Last year we introduced the 6th stream but this year we have again decided to add one more class in order to accommodate all the 336 form one students the school is supposed to admit,” he said.
He said so far 16 students admitted to the extra county school will not report due to various reasons, a figure the principal said will be replaced from a huge number applicants already received.
The principal urged the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to recruit more teachers to cope with the high enrolment necessitated by the 100 percent transition from primary to secondary policy and also for the children to access quality education and effective teaching be realised.
Kabarnet Boys with current student population of 1,145 in last year’s KCSE examinations posted a mean score of 7.70 making it the leading public secondary school in the county.
Out of 271 candidates who sat for the 2018 KCSE exams, a total of 201 attained the minimum university entry grade of C plus and above with 12 students scoring A minus.
By Benson Kelio and Joshua Kibet
