The Ministry of Education has instructed the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) to extend the application for placement in higher learning institutions to March 4, this year.
Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu said the seven days extension will enable the remaining applicants to get a chance to submit their choices both to universities and colleges.
KUCCPS opened its application portal on February 7, this year to allow the 2023 Kenya Certificate for Secondary Education (KCSE) candidates and other eligible Kenyans to apply for opportunities in higher learning institutions.
The initial application deadline was February 22, 2024, but it was later extended to February 26, 2024, an indication that as of February, 2024, at least 70 percent of all the targeted applicants with C+ and above had applied for placement.
In a press statement sent to newsrooms, CS Machogu said the Ministry of Education projects that a total of 171, 738 candidates who sat for the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) and obtained grade C+ and above will apply for placement in the country’s institutions of higher learning, which accounts for 86 percent.
“The remaining 14 percent are expected to seek opportunities in non-practicing universities, Module II Programmes or institutions of higher learning in other countries,” he said.
The CS announced that as of February 25 this year, a total 121, 391 candidates who obtained C+ in the 2023 KCSE examination had applied for various courses which accounts for 60.8 percent of the 199,695 Kenyan citizens who scored a mean grade of C+ and above.
He urged students who scored mean grades of between C and E to take advantage of the ongoing applications to select diploma, craft certificates, or artisan programmes offered in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions.
“This category of students have the advantage of walking into their preferred Ministry of Education TVET institutions to be assisted with the application process,” he added.
Mr Machogu said the Ministry and other stakeholders in government are working together to ensure that the challenges facing some students in the application process are addressed, adding that all applicants will be facilitated to apply for programmes and institutions of their choice.
“The Ministry is committed to ensuring that all eligible applicants are given a chance and no student will be left behind in the process,” assured Machogu.
He encouraged applicants whose payments are experiencing unusual delays to use USSD code *222# to confirm their payments and to trigger validation.
By Bernadette Khaduli
