Principals Urge Education Ministry to Scrap Centralised Senior School Placement

Kenya’s secondary school principals have called on the Ministry of Education to end the centralised placement of learners into senior schools, citing concerns over transparency and access to information.

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The Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kessha) says the current system, operated through the Kenya Education Management Information System (Kemis), excludes schools from key admission decisions. Principals argue that this has created confusion among educators and parents and weakened confidence in the process.

School heads report that they are receiving admission lists containing only students’ names, without examination scores or background details. According to Kessha, this makes it difficult for schools to assess academic merit, ensure fair regional representation, or understand why particular learners were selected.

Speaking at Kessha’s annual conference, chairperson Willie Kuria warned that the lack of transparency could undermine equity across counties. He said schools are unable to verify whether placements reflect performance or agreed criteria, raising concerns about fairness.

Parents have also complained about unexplained changes to placements, including cases where learners were moved to different schools without transfer requests. These concerns have been worsened by technical problems on the Kemis portal, which have prevented families from viewing or challenging placements. The Ministry has said the system will reopen on 6 January to allow revisions, shortly before the first cohort of 1.13 million Grade 9 learners report to senior school.

Mr Kuria, who is also Chief Principal of Murang’a High School, cited his own experience to illustrate the problem. He said his child, who scored 67 points, was placed in a local day school, and attempts to request a review failed due to system errors. He noted that under the previous admissions process, schools had access to Kenya Junior School Education Assessment results, allowing for clearer merit-based decisions.

Principals have raised particular concern about placement into different school clusters. They report instances of high-performing learners being assigned to Cluster Four schools, formerly sub-county institutions, while admission standards for Cluster One national schools remain unclear. Educators say this could affect academic standards if placement criteria are not clearly applied.

To address these issues, Kessha is proposing a hybrid admissions system. Under the proposal, parents would be allowed to approach schools directly to seek available places, with principals then submitting the details to Kemis for approval by the Ministry. The association says this would help fill vacant places left by students who fail to report, while maintaining oversight.

Mr Kuria rejected claims that principals have abused the admissions process for personal gain. He said any fees paid by parents are approved by school boards and officially receipted, adding that no evidence has been presented linking principals to corruption. He maintained that schools are seeking students because they have available capacity.

With reporting day set for 12 January, pressure is growing on the Ministry to address the concerns raised by educators and parents.