The following constitutes the revised 2014 form 1 selection guidelines:
- Candidates who may not be picked to schools of choice despite their marks will be placed in the available slots in schools of comparable levels of performance or category,
- The selection will be done based on merit, equity and choice of schools made by the candidates,
- The top four candidates from every county, male and female, will get places in national schools of their choice,
- Candidates who sat KCPE in the last two years and wish to rejoin the system will be considered during replacement based on merit,
- The selection process will be done at four levels — national, extra county, county or special schools and district,
- Admission to national schools will be 100 per cent national catchment,
- Every district will get slots in national schools through a quota system that will be arrived at by getting the district candidature multiplied by the available Form One vacancies in schools. This will then be divided by the national KCPE candidature to get the district quota,
- When a district misses a slot due to low candidature, affirmative action will be applied,
- Two separate formula, based on the district quota, will be used to determine the number of candidates from both public and private academies to be placed in national schools,
- Extra-County (high performing schools with mean score of 5.6 in KCSE) and County schools (former provincial boarding secondary schools) will select candidates after the national schools selection is completed,
- Extra-County schools will admit 40 per cent of the candidates nationally. The next 40 per cent will be selected from within the county and another 20 per cent from the district hosting the school and
- County schools will select candidates from within the county on the basis of KCPE candidature in each district within the county.
Note
The revised guidelines indicate that candidates from both public and private schools will be treated equally, putting to rest growing anxiety that candidates from academies would be discriminated against especially when it comes to National schools slots.
The 2014 form 1 selection has however revealed some imbalances in terms failing to strike balance between private and public schools. Some schools are said to have admitted very few students from public schools. This has caused even more anxiety among parents and guardians.