List of most preferred Top Best Secondary Schools by 2021 form one Students

Nanyuki High School was the most preferred secondary school by the 2021 form ones. According to the 2021 selection results from the Education Ministry, a total of 154,524 students applied for admission to Nanyuki High school. Surprisingly, the school has a capacity of only 384 form one students.

Kabianga High School attracted 142,640 but admitted only 480. While, Pangani Girls became the most preferred girls’ school after receiving 124,982 applications.

In total, the top fifteen preferred secondary schools attracted 1,578,741 applications against their cumulative admission capacity of 5,568 form ones.

List of most preferred secondary schools

S/N	Secondary School	Number of students selecting	Capacity/ No selected
1	Nanyuki High School	154,524	384
2	Kabianga High School	142,640	480
3	Pangani Girls	124,982	384
4	Nyandarua High School	123,976	288
5	Alliance Girls High School	105,053	384
6	Maseno School	104,581	528
7	Nakuru High School	100,840	336
8	Kapsabet Boys High	95,642	384
9	Butere Girls High School	94,774	432
10	Mbooni Girls High	93,515	240
11	Mang’u High School	93,271	384
12	Alliance High School	87,229	384
13	Kisumu Girls High School	86,456	384
14	Nakuru Girls High School	85,764	240
15	Moi Girls High School, Eldoret	85,494	336
16	Totals	1,578,741	5,568

2021 Form one selection numbers per school category

Of the 1,179,192 candidates that sat the 2020 KCPE Examination, 1,171,265 were placed in secondary schools. This was after excluding inmates, over age candidates, and candidates from refugee camps.

Consequently, the Education Ministry placed all candidates in secondary schools in keeping with the Government’s 100% transition policy from primary to secondary education.

In the selection, the Ministry strictly applied the principles of equity, fairness, merit, transparency, inclusiveness and affirmative action in placing the KCPE 2020 candidates to form one.

In the placement, the majority of candidates who scored 400 Marks and above were placed in National or Extra County schools of their choice. The Special Needs candidates were also placed in the regular schools of their preference, while others were placed in special schools based on their disability categories on merit and choice.

In this year’s selection, the Education Ministry moved a notch higher in applying the affirmative action provision by opening opportunities for a number of children from slums.

Through this, the Ministry managed to place an additional 667 learners from slums in urban areas in National and Extra county schools. The slums identified under this arrangement were from Thika, Nyeri, Kisumu, Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru and Eldoret urban centres.

This intervention was in line with the directive of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s rallying call that the Ministry considers needy and vulnerable children in informal settlements in urban areas.

During the selection, a number of issues were noted and that require concerted efforts to address to ensure that all future KCPE candidates are able to get opportunities to study in secondary schools they desire

2020 KCPE Candidates’ School Choices

During the selection, it became clear to us that, a big number of candidates did not receive proper guidance and direction when choosing schools. For instance, Education officials were dismayed by one school whose almost entire class of candidates selected the same secondary schools, and in the same order.

This act, which borders on carelessness on the part of the school, made many of the candidates to miss their preferred schools because it is impossible to select more than five learners from the same primary school.

“We wish to call upon head teachers and parents to ensure candidates make wise choices through proper advise. I also direct my relevant Ministry officials to mount proper sensitisation programmes on the Form One selection process.” Says CS Magoha.

Here is a list showing how the 2021 form ones were placed to various school categories;

S/N	School category	No of Girls selected	No of Boys Selected	Total
1	National	17,406	18,848	36,254
2	SNE	536	1,291	1,827
3	Extra County	95,646	105,431	201,077
4	County	115,325	98,266	213,591
5	Sub County	357,029	361,487	718,516
6	Total	585,942	585,323	1,171,265

List of most preferred secondary schools

2021 Form one selection numbers per school category

2020 KCPE Candidates’ School Choices

Here is a list showing how the 2021 form ones were placed to various school categories;

See also;