Battle for top schools as placement transfer window closes
Education
By
Lewis Nyaundi
| Dec 31, 2025
Parents are locked in an intense scramble for places in top senior secondary schools as the seven-day placement transfer window closes, exposing mounting strain in the new, highly centralised placement system.
Thousands of parents and learners are still seeking changes to their initial placements, with pressure overwhelmingly concentrated on about 10 elite national schools that attracted tens of thousands of applications for only a few hundred available slots.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba on Tuesday revealed that the ministry had received 355,457 applications for placement reviews, with 211,636 approvals processed so far. Most rejected applications, he said, targeted a small cluster of prestigious schools.
Among boys schools, Alliance High School, Mang’u High School, Kapsabet Boys, Maseno School, Lenana School and Maranda High School each received up to 20,000 transfer requests, despite having an average capacity of about 500 slots. On the girls’ side, Alliance Girls, Kenya High School, Pangani Girls and Moi Girls Eldoret attracted similar volumes of applications.
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“A large number of students wanted to go to the main, about 10 schools in the country,” Ogamba said. “They were receiving more than 20,000 applications, yet the declared vacancies were about 500.”
The CS announced that parents whose applications were unsuccessful will have another opportunity to seek transfers between January 6 and 9. Ahead of that window, the ministry will work with school heads to confirm remaining vacancies. Schools that have already reached full capacity will be excluded from the second revision exercise. However, Ogamba said principals may be asked whether they can marginally expand declared vacancies.
“Some principals declared, for example, 500 vacancies. We are going to find out whether they can increase that number by 10 or 20,” he said.
While the centralised portal will remain in use, Ogamba signalled a possible policy shift following complaints from principals who lost admission powers under the new system. He said school heads may regain limited discretion after the reporting deadline of January 16, once they assess actual enrolment and no-shows.
Placement data shows a strong tilt towards science-based learning pathways. According to the ministry, 51 per cent of learners were placed in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), 38 per cent in social sciences, and 11 per cent in arts and sports science.
To ease confusion, the ministry has established help desks at its headquarters and is rolling out regional desks to assist parents and learners.