Details of the top 15 national schools preferred by KCPE stars have emerged.
Data sieved by the Sunday Standard shows that Pangani Girls was the most sought after school by girls when they applied for Form One slots.
A total of 87,209 students picked Pangani Girls as their first choice.
The school, that has a capacity of only 336, attracted a total of 110,835 applications from students who picked it either as first, second, third or fourth choice.
Some 11,015 students selected Pangani Girls as their second choice as 5,370 selected it as third choice and 7,241 making it their last choice.
Alliance Girls only attracted 7,078 applications from students who picked it as their first choice.
Shockingly, a total of 73,807 selected Alliance Girls as their third choice. Ordinarily, the school -- with a capacity of 384 -- was the first choice of most female candidates in previous years.
This year, only 7,876 students picked the school as their second choice while 3,306 as fourth choice.
Overall, a total of 92,067 candidates sought to join the school.
Capacity
Moi Girls Eldoret attracted more students as first choice compared to Kenya High.
Some 4,225 students applied to join Moi Girls Eldoret while some 4,051 selected Kenya High as first choice.
The two schools have capacities of 336 and 288 respectively.
Interestingly, the two top schools received more applications from students as their third option.
Some 51,750 students selected Moi Girls Eldoret as third choice while 38,752 picked Kenya High as third choice.
Overall, Moi Girls Eldoret attracted a total of 65,284 students while 49,060 picked Kenya High.
Under the boys’ category, Kapsabet Boys was the most preferred national school. A total of 62,383 students selected the school as their first choice.
The school that has an overall capacity of 432 attracted a total of 70,921 applicants.
Interestingly, less than 10,000 applications expressed interest to join Kapsabet Boys as their second, third and last choices.
Only 5,272 candidates selected Kapsabet Boys as their second choice. Another 1,959 picked the school as third choice while 1,307 as fourth choice.
Maranda Boys was the second best school with some 34,138 students picking it as their first choice.
The school, with a capacity of only 528, attracted 39,466 applications.
Only 3,459 students selected Maranda Boys as their second choice with 1,183 picking it as third choice. Only 686 students selected the school as fourth choice.
Mang'u High School was another top sought-after school, with total applications of 86,976. However, 70,149 students selected the school as their third choice.
Some 6,385 students picked Mang'u High as first choice. A total of 6,690 selected the school as their second choice while another 3,752 as fourth and last choice.
Overall, Alliance High School, Mang'u High, Lenana School, Nairobi School and Starehe Boys still remain the top 15 schools candidates chose to join.
Maseno School, Kapsabet Boys, Maranda High, Alliance Girls, Kenya High, Pangani Girls and Limuru Girls also make the top schools' list.
Others are Moi Girls Eldoret, Maryhill and Nakuru Girls schools.
There are 103 national schools with a capacity of 31,337.
Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said the 1,038,162 candidates who sat the examinations will get Form One slots.
Extra County, County and Sub County schools have some 998,000 slots for students.
Ministry data also shows that there are some 129,168 slots in all the 540 Extra County schools.
There are also 151,605 slots available in the 1,030 county schools.
And majority 647,305 slots have been declared across the 7,085 Sub County schools.
Also taken up are 1,626 places in Special Needs Education schools. There are some 35 Special Needs Education Secondary Schools, according to ministry data.
Private schools declared 60,356 Form One slots.
“We shall make sure all candidates gain admission to secondary schools as promised under then 100 per cent transition,” said Dr Kipsang.
Selection of candidates to Extra-County schools is based on a 20:40:40 ratio, shared across the host sub-county, the host county and other counties in that order.
The available places in county schools will be shared out between the sub-counties on a 20:80 ratio.
aoduor@standardmedia.co.ke
