Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has urged parents to embrace day schools as Form 1s nationwide report to schools.
Machogu said a learner in a day school can also perform well just as in boarding schools.
"People should change their attitude and know that our children can perform even in day schools," Machogu said.
He said even learners in day schools produce A's in national exams.
The CS spoke on Wednesday when presiding over the KCB Foundation award of 1000 scholarships to learners.
Form Ones started reporting to secondary schools across the country from Monday and the admission process will take place till Friday.
School heads have been apprehensive that they may not have enough resources to accommodate the increased enrolment.
The last Kenya Certificate of Primary Education in 2023 saw the highest number of candidates in history sit the examination as it will never be administered again.
1,233,852 candidates sat the national exam in 2022. The number rose to 1,406,557 in 2023.
Machogu said if parents embraced day schools, then there would be no congestion in boarding secondary schools.
"The problem we have is not capacity. The problem is a number of us want only specific schools. Every parent wants a National or extra county school yet there is space in day schools," he said.
Machogu said the ministry is monitoring the Form 1 admission situation very keenly.
42,927 learners were able to secure places in national schools.
Of the total admitted to national schools, 22,051 were boys while 20,876 were girls.
Some 2,225 learners secured places in Special Needs schools (1,214 boys and 1,011 girls).
At least 274, 746 candidates (141, 590 boys and 133,156 girls) got placements in Extra County schools while 288, 201 learners (129,332 boys and 158,869 girls) secured placement in County schools.
A majority, 792, 230 learners (423, 171 boys and 369,059 girls) got places in Sub-County schools.
In the placement, all candidates who scored 400 Marks and above were placed in either the National or Extra County schools of their choice.
The performance of the learners was a major criterion for placement into secondary schools.
