How Grade 10 placement went wrong

The placement of the first cohort of learners to senior school has exposed deep flaws in the new system, leaving parents frustrated and raising questions about whether the process was fair, coordinated and properly managed.

What was meant to be a smooth transition has instead become a chaotic process, leaving thousands of families confused and dissatisfied.

At the heart of the debate is a formula borrowed from the Commission on Revenue Allocation, which the Education ministry says was used to distribute Grade 10 vacancies across sub-counties.

According to the ministry, the formula considered population, equal share, geographical size, poverty levels and income to ensure equity, especially for learners from disadvantaged areas.

However, key details on how these factors were weighted and applied have not been made public.

Parents say they were never told how much each factor mattered, or how the final decisions were reached. In many cases, families only discovered the outcome when placement results were released, with no explanation attached.

“How was that formula applied in the placement? What was the weight of each of the factors, and how were the students distributed across the various categories students were distributed? The ministry has not answered these questions.” Silas Obuhatsa, the National Parents Association chairman, posed.

According to official data, 1,102,966 learners were successfully placed into Grade 10 to pursue one of the three pathways under the new system.

Of the total placed learners, 923,661 were absorbed into public senior schools, while 119,692 joined private institutions.

Investigations by The Sunday Standard show that the problems began much earlier, during the selection of senior schools, while learners were still in junior school. 

Dozens of interviews with Education ministry officials, parents and details in official documents reveal learners were posted to schools they neither chose, while others were placed far from their homes.

Basic Education Principal Secretary Julius Bitok has acknowledged that the decision to leave senior school selection largely in the hands of junior school heads proved costly. 

He revealed that many parents disengaged from the process, focusing only on a few top schools while leaving the rest of the choices to school administrators, opening the door to haphazard decision-making.

“All learners were placed in schools that they had selected.

‘‘In some cases, what happened is that the process of selection was left to the school heads, who completed the selection, choosing institutions without consultation with the families,” Bitok said in an interview with The Sunday Standard. This, the PS said, could be part of the reason for some parents and students being disgruntled with the senior schools they were placed.

But that’s not all, as it has now emerged that some learners may have been placed in schools they did not select at all during the admission process.

Fresh data from the Ministry of Education shows that more than half of all senior secondary schools were completely shunned by learners during the selection exercise, raising questions about how such institutions later received students. 

Out of 9,750 schools listed for transition from Junior Secondary to Senior School, more than 5,000 were not selected by a single learner.

This means students expressed interest in just about 4,250 schools nationwide before the selection window closed on July 15. 

However, a document by the Ministry of Education, seen by the Standard, shows that the Grade 10 students were distributed among 9,600 senior secondary schools.

This means that despite being ignored during selection, many of the unchosen schools have since received students through the placement exercise.

Adding to the confusion, the placement appears to have ignored the students’ geographical location as cases emerge of students placed to day schools far from their homes.

This has increased financial and emotional strain on families, particularly those from poor backgrounds.

In one instance, a student who is based in Nairobi has been assigned to join a day senior secondary school in Kisii County.

“I am not sure if I am supposed to rent out a place for my son to stay when he reports in January,” the parent told the Standard.

The Ministry of Education has defended the process, saying it relied on a formula inspired by the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) to distribute Grade Ten vacancies fairly across sub-counties.

However, it remains unclear how factors such as poverty levels, population, geographical size, and income disparities were weighted during placement.

Education experts warn that a formula alone cannot fix structural weaknesses if the human processes around it are poorly managed.