Only 9,800 grade 12s accepted

By LORRAINE JIMAL
OUT of more than 26,500 grade 12 students who applied for places in tertiary institutions this year, only around 9,800 have been accepted, according to the Department of Higher Education Research Science and Technology (DHERST).
DHERST revealed this through the national online selection system which saw 26,544 applications filed through the national online application system; 9,852 were selected for tertiary education according to their choices.
This year, a total of 31,817 students sat for the grade 12 upper secondary school certificate.
DHERST acting secretary Dr Francis Hualupmomi said 16,600 students were eligible and would be considered through the national admission pool (NAP) to fill the 5,319 Government-funded spaces available in 57 registered higher State education institutions in the country.
He said due to the Coronavirus (Covid-19), there were slight changes which saw an increase in the number of students into the institutions from last year.
Dr Hualupmomi said last year, a total of 27,143 had applied for places at tertiary institutions, and 9,371 were selected for Government-funded places.
He said the students in the (NAP) still had the opportunity to be selected by various institutions according to the institutions requirements. “At the moment, spaces available at higher education institutions can cater for 15,091 school levers who have applied through the national online application.”