The end of this year will mark the transition of Grade 9 students to Senior secondary school with Grades 10-12 marking the final stage of basic education under the competency-based curriculum.
Grade 9 is the pioneer group of the CBC system introduced in January 2017 when the government began the gradual shift to the 40-year-old 8-4-4 curriculum.
To progress to secondary school, Grade 9 students will take the New Kenya Junior Secondary Education Assessment (KJSEA) in November, marking the first time a national examination will be held at the secondary school level under the CBC.
The KJSEA is a national summative assessment that will be administered by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC). It will count for 60% of the final grade while the academic assessment will be 40%.
After the KJSEA, students will be placed in different schools according to their career path.
While elementary schools (grades 7 to 9) were located in the parents’ elementary schools, middle schools will be a combination of the current four levels of schools.
The four categories are national schools, extra county schools, county schools and sub-county schools.
However, according to the CBC, the categorization of schools will cease to exist and students will be placed in high schools according to three career paths. These are the arts and sciences of sport, science, technology and mathematics (STEM), and social sciences.
Each of the three career paths has what will be called streams (combinations of subjects, which, according to the CBC, are known as learning areas).
Arts and Sciences of Sport has three streams: Performing Arts, Sports and Visual Arts.
STEM has four streams: pure sciences, applied sciences, technology and engineering, and career technology studies (CTS).
Social sciences has two streams: humanities and business sciences, and language and literature. Your child will be placed in a high school based on how well the KJSEA score matches the requirements of the three streams (Arts and Sports Science; Science, Technology and Mathematics (STEM) and Social Sciences). Schools accept 9th grade graduates based on their staff and infrastructure capacity.
For example, today’s national schools have the best facilities in the country and can accommodate students in all three majors.
However, some additional county schools may be limited by infrastructure capacity to accommodate only two vocational streams.
In addition to the school-based formative assessment and the summer KJSEA that determines a child’s career path, KNEC will send out questionnaires in which students indicate their interests and personality to help identify their strengths. This will help education officials identify students with particular talents in areas such as gaming or science to ensure they are placed in schools with the capacity to adequately support their career choices.
Apart from all of the above factors, there are three other factors that will determine which school your child will be placed in.
According to the CBC, the focus is on placing students in schools closest to their homes, meaning that students typically attend nearby schools for their higher education, as was the case with primary education, where grades 7 to 9 were integrated into existing elementary schools.
This means that the placement of students in secondary school will be partly influenced by the availability of places, equity and inclusion. Regions with more schools will be at an advantage, as this means that more places will be available.
Students will also be placed in each school (guided by career path) regardless of their gender, meaning that schools exclusively for boys or girls will cease to exist.
Regional balance and geographic location will also play a role in determining how students are placed in secondary school. This aspect will avoid students having to travel miles from home to attend a specific school, as currently happens in the 8-4-4 system.
