Nairobi — The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) portal will remain open until March 4 to allow 2023 KCSE candidates to register their choices for tertiary institutions.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu announced the new deadline on Monday, a day after KUCCPS declared an open-ended extension for applicants to choose from various degrees, diplomas, craft certificates, or artisan programmes offered in universities, colleges, and TVET institutions.

Machogu urged the remaining applicants to apply for their preferred courses and institutions before the deadline.

"As of February 25, 2024, 121,391 candidates who obtained C+ and above in the 2023 KCSE Examination had applied for various courses. This accounts for 60.8% of the 199,695 Kenyan citizens who scored a mean grade of C+ and above in the 2023 Examination," CS Machogu said.

He also emphasized that the placement agency had put in place measures to address the technical issues and facilitate a smooth and efficient application process.

"The Ministry has taken note of the challenges that some students have faced in the ongoing application process. The Ministry of Education and other stakeholders in Government are working together to ensure that the challenges are addressed and all applicants facilitated to apply for programmes and institutions of their choice," Machogu stated.

The CS also encouraged the applicants to explore the diverse programmes offered in the TVET sector, especially those who scored mean grades between C and E.

Machogu encouraged applicants whose payments are experiencing unusual delays, to use the USSD code *222# to confirm their payments and, or trigger validation.

In its statement on Sunday, KUCCPS assured it will bar no applicants on account of time following complaints raised by the public on downtime on the application portal ahead of the initial deadline slated for February 26.