Parents of learners who are set to join Grade 10 in January are now lamenting that their children’s Senior School choices are being changed even without transfer requests. Some of the affected parents say that when they download the admission letters, the schools that their kids have been sent to are different from those that they were placed in through the SMS confirmation messages.
These schools are also not part of the choices that the learners had highlighted. In one case that was highlighted by educationist Wambugu Kamau, a learner who was initially placed at Nairobi School was later transferred to Utumishi Academy in GilGil, even though they had not made a request for the transfer.
In a different case, a parent narrated how their child was placed at TJ Kajwang Mixed Day School in Mathare area of Nairobi, even though the child and the parents reside in Kisumu County and had not selected the mixed day school in their choices.
In other cases, learners who were placed in C1 schools (which were formerly known as national schools) are reeling from shock after being downgraded to C2 schools (which were formerly known as extra-county schools).
In one case, a parent said that their child was placed at Starehe Boys Centre. The child has since been moved to Oloolaise High School in Ngong even though no transfer request was made. Oloolaise is a C2 school while Starehe is a C1 school.
The same affected a learner who was initially placed at Starehe Boys Centre only to be later moved to Cardinal Otunga High School without making any placement requests.
SEE MORE: Step by step guide on how to revise Senior School placements
The Ministry of Education had opened a one week transfer window. During this window, the ministry received a total of 355,457 applications. Out of these, 211,636 applications were approved while the remaining applications were rejected.
A new window has since been opened following huge transfer demands from parents. The new window shall run from January 6 to January 9 2026.
