Maranda, Pangani, Kamusinga Send Largest Numbers of Student to Public Universities

Maranda High School, which topped the 2011 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE), will send the largest number of students to public universities this year.

The Nyanza-based school will take 260 out of the 41,000 places available, according to a Joint Admissions Board (JAB) list made available to Saturday Nation.

Second is Pangani Girls, the largest girls’ school in the country, with 250 places. In the schools ranking it was ninth overall.

Western’s Friends School Kamusinga, which was in the 12th position nationally, is third with 225 places.

The three leapfrogged traditional giants such as Alliance, Starehe, Mangu and Alliance Girls, which have for the past 22 years sent the most students to university.

Established national schools

Others with the most slots in Nairobi were Nairobi School (223), Starehe Boys’ Centre (193), The Kenya High (182) and Lenana School (168). The four are all established national schools.

In Central, Alliance High topped the list with 217 places while Kagumo High from Nyeri County was second with 208.

Other good performers in the province are Alliance Girls (186), Limuru Girls (185), Mang’u (175) and Kirima Girls, a new national school, with 138 places.

Moi Girls - Eldoret and Kapsabet Boys topped in the Rift Valley with 172 and 163 places, respectively.

Makueni Boys and Meru School led in Eastern, each sending 142 students to university.

Other top performers in Nyanza and Western were Lugulu Girls (181), Maseno School (177), Kisii School (160) and Bunyore Girls (148).

Kanga High (South Nyanza), which had irregularities, sent 145 students.

In a stark reminder of regional inequalities, Coast and North Eastern sent only a quarter of the places taken up by Maranda as new national schools Ribe Boys, Garissa High and Bura Girls sent 23, 20 and 18.

Newly promoted national schools, which were each allocated Sh25 million to expand classrooms and laboratories, put up a strong performance, producing seven of the top 20 nationally.

More eligible for admission

A total of 119,658 candidates attained a minimum grade of ‘C’ Plus, making them eligible for admission to the country’s public universities.

This was an increase of 22,524 candidates from the 97,134 who attained the score in 2010, an improvement of 20 per cent.

The cut-off point was set at grade ‘B’ and selection of those who were admitted was also affected by the requirements of the courses they had chosen.

Those who had better cluster grades were given priority to pursue the courses they desired.

Source: Daily Nation