Hopes for thousand of learners to pursue medicine through regular placement have been dashed after the Kenya University and Colleges Central Placement Service KUCCPS revealed that only 700 students will be placed through its program.
The revelation was made during the release of results of this year’s placement process that was graced by Cabinet Secretary for Education Julius Migos Ogamba.
The number pales in comparison to 6,500 number of candidates who sat for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education who had applied for medicine in various universities.
“We look at the cluster subjects. The cluster subjects are Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, and a language, and then the students compete in those four subjects.” KUCCPS CEO Agnes Wahome has said.
“The students get a cluster weight, and then now the weight is what is ranked from the first to the last student, who is now student number 6500; then we cut it off per university,” she added.
KUCCPS has further revealed that a total of 270,608 students have qualified for university admission.
Education CS Migos Ogamba has further announced that the inter-institution transfer window has been extended from two weeks to one month to give students more time to request changes to their placements where necessary.
“I have ordered KUCCPS to come up with mechanisms to allow those who did not apply to be placed to be given an opportunity to apply.” He has said.
202,133 secured admission to degree programmes, while 28,246 were placed at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC).
