My niece did NOT choose to go to Elwak eish! I never knew such a school existed. That kid from a school in Embakassi did not select that day school in Bungoma

I am just giving the details of how the process happens, or is supposed to happen.
I know there are such cases and one has an opportunity to seek redress in such situations, but for the sake of the current discussion, we are looking at what generally happens, in any process there will be errors and that's why there is an opportunity for redress.
sorry for what happened to your niece, if that has been happening where kids are taken to schools they did not choose then that is wrong, the whole point of selecting schools is so that one is prepared.

I do not think affirmative action or dumb selection of schools is the cause for this mess. Kids from marginalized areas have been getting a boost for well over 25 yrs, and complaints have been negligible. And reasonable people generally agree that it is good policy. I know because I missed a chance to join Alliance many years ago. Nor is the mess due to poor selection of schools: many parents know how to hedge their odds, and for top performing students at least, headmasters and other more experienced teachers provide advice. Besides, there hasn't ever been this level of disenchantment.

What we have here is a situation where a kid who scores less gets admitted to a more selective school than the one with higher scores - where both are from the VERY SAME primary school. It doesn't seem to be an socioeconomic equalizer sort-of-policy as it is also happening in rural public schools where everyone is struggling. I have no idea how the system was devised, but I think that if there is indeed a criteria, the ministry ought to disclose it.

Otherwise we are left with a bizarre system where kids sit exams whose results may or may not be a factor in determining where they head afterwards.

I suppose you are not familiar with this matter. To bring yourself up to speed, you may want to read/watch news reports and see that the complaints are from both the rich and the poor.

Or it might help if I explain why this issue interests me. Which is simply that my friend's daughter, whose family is quite poor, was admitted to a less selective school while her schoolmates, who she beat by more than 20 points, landed the prized letter to the likes of Alliance and Precious Blood, Riruta.

People like us want to know the criteria used. It is evidently not financial ability. It is also not a hardship region/fertile region sort of balancing. And for what it is worth, it does not seem the usual tribal thing.

One more point, it is needlessly arrogant to change the rules after the students have made their choices and sat the exams, and not care whatsoever about the aftermath.

This Kaimenyi and Co must be very Kichwa ngumu.

How can there be such hue and cry and they are not saying a word.

I suggest we take a week kirudio.

1.National schools are meant to give a National outlook.This can be gotten by dividing the 21000 slots equally with the 47 counties.This will give about 400 per county.Distribute the top 400 in every county in all National schools.This will take care of the marginalised areas.

From there move to the next lot.Those with 350 +....distribute them in the next cadre of schools.

And so on and so forth.

Having said that we should be pushing the government to equip all schools to ensure they are all good.

It is a fact all students cannot fit in Alliance but we can have several Alliances out there.

Off to see Kimenyi....Kirudio....we are watching as things go wrong and doing nothing.Maybe we need to talk to Boniface to lead us in some demonstration.