Central Region Director of Education Sabina Aroni has urged parents to be strategic when revising Grade 10 placement options for their children during the second phase of the review exercise.
In an interview with the Kenya News Agency (KNA) at her Nyeri office, Aroni asked parents and learners seeking transfers for senior school placement to first consult ministry officials at their respective county and sub-county levels on schools that have vacancies before making their application.
The Regional Director noted that whereas some of the applications for transfers were successful, others were declined for lack of capacity at the targeted school, since a number of premier institutions had already exhausted their available vacancies.
She is now cautioning parents against concentrating their applications on only a few popular schools, noting that many other equally good schools still have readily available vacancies.
“Our major concern is that parents and learners are concentrating on particular schools, even though we have existing vacancies in other schools. That’s why I am appealing to the concerned parties to seek guidance from officials at the regional, county, and sub-county level before placing their applications,” she said.
“If, for instance, the school has a capacity of 150 Grade 10 learners, it is not possible to admit beyond that limit; hence, any other applications made would automatically bounce.
Even if again you apply to a school that has already exhausted the available vacancies, the application will be declined, and this might not be very good for both parents and the learners because it will take time before they get admission to Grade 10,” she added.
The director spoke on the day the Ministry of Education opened the second Grade 10 placement revision window, which is expected to run until January 9, and this time round, the learners will only be allowed to lodge one application.
According to an earlier statement by Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba, learners seeking to revise their placement will be allowed to submit their applications through their junior schools or directly through senior schools of choice, under the existing placement protocols.
Ogamba said the second review phase would give parents, guardians, and learners an opportunity to present legitimate and verifiable grounds for reconsideration of their initial or revised placements.
The CS said heads of institutions will be required to submit all applications through the placement portal for processing in line with protocols already issued by the Ministry.
He said that the approach will address genuine placement gaps while ensuring fairness and transparency in the transition to senior school under the competency-based education (CBE).
The initial placement exercise began on December 14, with results being released on December 19, 2025. The learners were then allowed to lodge up to four applications for review of their placement between December 23 and 29.
The ministry said it had received a total of 355,457 applications for reviews during the first phase of the revision window but only approved 211,636. Some 143,821 applications were declined due to the absence of the preferred subject combinations or insufficient capacity in the selected schools.
Nonetheless, Aroni assured parents in the region that there were adequate vacancies to accommodate all the learners who undertook their Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) in 2025.
She also noted that a substantial number of the learners were satisfied with their senior school placement and are expected to report to their respective schools starting January 12.
Additionally, the regional director said preparations to receive learners in the new level of education have been going on for some time, with the schools where Grade 10 learners will be reporting ready to receive them and offer the necessary orientation before learning starts.
“I want to report that most of the learners have been placed, and a good number of them have accepted their initial placement. But we shall continue offering guidance and support until the last learner is settled in senior school, as mandated by the law,” she said.
At the same time, while addressing concerns by parents whose children have been placed in Day Secondary Schools (classified as C4) far away from their homes, Aroni said that such cases can be resolved by visiting the nearest sub-county or county education offices.
“I want to guide the public that this is not a very big problem because the government has established education offices across the country. I would recommend parents of learners affected by this to visit their nearest education office.
We have C4 schools that are nearest to the homes of these affected learners, so this is an issue that the respective education offices can resolve immediately if it is brought to their attention,” she said.
By Wangari Mwangi & Samuel Maina
