Private schools in Nakuru County have called for a fairness between public and private schools in the allocation of form one slots which has kicked off today.
Speaking in Nakuru town on Monday morning, the Kenya Private Schools Association (KEPSA) Nakuru chapter through its deputy Secretary General, Purity Wamaitha, said that the quota system being applied by the government is denying private school students and equal opportunity to be enrolled in well performing public schools.
Wamaitha said that the selection process should be open and based on individual students performance instead of the quota system which is being applied.
She said that it is saddening to see students who performed poorly in public schools get slots in good public schools at the expense of those who performed better in private schools
“The slots being allocated to private schools are locking out so many students from good schools. The government must use the open selection system instead of the quota system being used. Let them look at the performance of every student because there is no need of giving a national school slot to a student who got 350 marks just because he is from a public school and leaving out a student who scored 400 marks from a private school,” said Wamaitha.
She claimed that the system being sued by the government is aimed at discouraging parents from enrolling their children in private schools.
“The government must stop fighting private schools but instead should allow us to compete fairly and have equal opportunities in national schools because all these are Kenyan children and they have a right to get into that good school regardless of whether they passed through a public or private school,” she said.
The form one section for national schools was launched on Monday by Education CS Jacob Kaimenyi in Nairobi.