A section of Nakuru residents have called on the Ministry of Education to exercise transparency in Form One Selection exercise.
Speaking on Monday at Nakuru Town, the residents said that the Ministry of Education should restore its credibility by conducting the exercise in a transparent manner.
James Kamau, a teacher at Afraha Secondary School, Nakuru said that the selection should be conducted on merit and quotas.
“The candidates who excelled well in 2014 KCPE should be given first priority and each county should get a slot in national schools through quota system,” said Kamau.
The residents are undecided over the selection of Form One Selection, following the ban of ranking of candidates and schools by the Ministry of Education.
“Everything is in disarray; we don't know who attained the highest or lowest marks.We suspect there is foul play concealed by the Ministry of Education to conduct a transparent exercise,” said Jacob Wekesa, a parent at Bondeni Primary School.
The residents want monitoring to be included to ascertain the credibility of selection.
“Since the Ministry of Education has not released guidelines on how the process will be conducted, there is need to invite neutral monitoring to instill confidence in the whole exercise,” said Agnes Owino, a parent.
The residents argued that the constitution guarantees Kenyans the right to access information from the Ministry of Education on how the exercise should be conducted
On his part, Edward Kirui, a teacher from Mount Olives Academy, a private school in Nakuru, said that discrimination should be ruled out in the selection exercise.
“All candidates, either from public or private should be accorded fair rights,” said Kirui, adding that public candidates should not be given preference over their private counterparts.
The Form One Selection exercise is set to kick off on Tuesday.