Fate of 3,000 schools with no students hangs in the balance

Education officials are facing a fresh crisis over the fate of more than 3,000 secondary schools that either failed to attract Grade 10 learners or admitted only a handful of students during the first Senior School transition.

With the second cohort of learners expected to transition from Junior School to Senior School in January, the affected institutions could be left with only one class when the current Form Four cohort exits.

Data from the Ministry of Education tabled before parliament in March shows that 330 schools did not receive a single Grade 10 learner, while 2,400 schools received fewer than 20 students.

Education stakeholders are expected to meet next week to discuss the fate of the schools and consider options for institutions left with extremely low enrolment.

Sources indicate that several options, including closing or merging some of the affected institutions, are on the table, particularly schools that will consistently fail to attract sufficient numbers of learners in January.

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has previously attributed the shunning of some schools to the transition from the 8-4-4 system to CBE.

He explained that the first cohort entering Grade 10 did so at a time when many schools had additional capacity because there was no Form Two class in the new system.

According to the CS, the absence of a Form One intake in 2025 and the subsequent exit of the final Form Four class created additional space in schools.

The CS told Parliament that 330 schools did not receive a single Grade 10 learner, while 2,400 schools received fewer than 20 students.

He said this created room for some institutions to accommodate a double intake during the 2026 Grade 10 admission.

Ogamba further explained that the situation triggered intense competition among parents seeking places for their children in preferred schools.

He said the new placement system allows learners to select the schools they want to attend, resulting in some institutions attracting large numbers while others received very few or no learners.

He said the Ministry was examining the situation and would determine how to deal with schools that had recorded extremely low enrolment.

However, the CS indicated that it would not rush to close or merge schools simply because they recorded low enrolment during the first transition, arguing that the unusual numbers were partly a result of the transition period.

However, in the second year, the low enrolment could hit hard on the institutions, as capitation is drastically reduced.

Willy Kuria, the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association chairman, argues that government funding is largely linked to enrolment, meaning schools with very few learners will receive less capitation.

“These schools could struggle to meet expenses such as payment of Board of Management teachers, utilities, maintenance, learning materials and other operational costs,” Kuria said in an interview.

The crisis comes as the Government prepares for the second Senior School transition under the Competency-Based Education system.

While the Government has pointed to the transition and double intake to explain the uneven distribution, a new report argues that poor resources in day schools and C4 schools could also be the reason the institutions are shunned.

The third Senior School Survey Report by Usawa Agenda found that the reclassification of schools into Clusters One, Two, Three and Four had not changed the historical inequalities in resource distribution.

The report noted that Cluster One schools remain well-resourced while Cluster Four institutions, which constitute the majority of schools and educate most learners, continued to lag in resources and national examination performance.

This, the report indicates, is the reason parents may be fighting for places in C1 and C2 schools while other institutions struggle to fill their classrooms.

The survey found that 79.3 per cent of Cluster One schools had operational libraries, compared with only 29.1 per cent of Cluster Four schools.

In science facilities, the report found that 88.4 per cent of Cluster One schools had chemistry laboratories, compared with only 21.6 per cent of Cluster Four schools.

ICT facilities showed a similar pattern, with nine in 10 Cluster One schools offering computer lessons compared with only one in five Cluster Four schools.

Usawa Agenda Executive Director Emmanuel Manyasa said the findings showed that the old classification of schools continues to reign

“The disparity in school ranking has not disappeared; the Government has changed their names, but C1 are just national schools, and so on,” Manyasa said.

He has instead called on the government to provide equal resources to the C4 schools to attract more students.