Concern as over 130,000 candidates in 2023 KCPE fail to report Form One

Mercy Muoko should be in school, alongside thousands of other Form One students who joined secondary school this month.

Instead, she is staring at a bleak future, brought about by a lack of financial might that could see her sit out the first term of her secondary education at Thitani Girls Secondary School.

She is not the only one at the risk of watching their dreams fade away. In Nyamira, Trevor scored 371 marks and is set to join Cardinal Otunga Mosocho School, but hasn’t due to lack of funds.

John Makori got 322 marks and is also waiting on well-wishers to facilitate his transition to Nyamira Boys.

These are the faces of the children missing out on secondary school education this year.

The Ministry of Education data shows that over 130,000 boys and girls from across Kenya are yet to transition from primary to secondary school. The Ministry of Education report, as of 26th January, shows that while children have reported to either secondary school or joined tertiary institutions, 131,854 children have not reported to school.

The ministry placed 1.39 million Children in secondary schools. Ninety-one per cent of these have reported to schools, the rest have not.

The instances of low transition to secondary school are evident in counties like Kajiado which had only 64 per cent of the children joining high school, others like Kilifi, Narok and Isiolo also registered less than 80 per cent transition rates, while Bungoma and Baringo are among counties that send 82 and 85 per cent of their children to secondary school.

Laikipa, Nyeri and Samburu counties had the highest number of children moving to secondary school with nearly all of the children placed in secondary schools, joining high school.

Wajir, Nakuru and Nairobi had a transition rate of 98 per cent while Marsabit in the north had 97 per cent of the children joining Form One

The government has insisted on pushing for a 100 per cent transition rate, but this has failed to materialise this year, with only 91 per cent of the target being achieved.

Those who have opted to join technical training stand at 91 per cent. Some 3,128 boys and 2,595 girls joined vocational training institutes this year.

And as the second month of the year, and the one-month mark for the first term of the school calendar approaches, students like Mercy, Trevor and John will be holding on to that hope that they will get to join their peers before they lose too much ground in their quest for education.