First-ever KJSEA exam results put new school curriculum to the test

KNEC CEO David Njeng’ere. KJSEA is set to eventually replace KCPE as the central transition mechanism. [File, Standard]

Two days before the release of the Kenya Junior Secondary Education Assessment (KJSEA) results, the country is bracing for a historic shift in how learners transition into senior secondary school.

This year’s KJSEA, the first for junior secondary under Competency-Based Education (CBE), is a litmus test for Kenya’s ambitious reforms aimed at producing creative, competent, and future-ready learners.

The assessment, sat by more than one million Grade 9 learners, marks the first major break from the high-stakes Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) model that dominated the 8-4-4 era for nearly four decades.

While KJSEA is set to eventually replace KCPE as the central transition mechanism, its structure and philosophy differ sharply from the system Kenyan parents and learners have known for years.

Instead of one exam determining the fate of a child, the new system blends continuous assessment, learner interests, and a holistic review of competencies.

Under KCPE, a single three-day exam taken at the end of eight years of primary school determined placement into secondary school. It was unforgiving, high-pressure, and often seen as a defining moment in a child’s life.

But KJSEA is only part of a wider matrix that measures learners’ development over time.

Kenya National Examinations Council CEO David Njeng’ere has been at the forefront of explaining the changes.

“This means that in Grade 7 and Grade 8, learners sit for school-based assessments. That is a strategy of ensuring that we move away from high-stakes exams that come at the end of a cycle, and cumulatively look at how they are acquiring competencies along the way,” Dr Njeng’ere said.

Under the new model, the KJSEA summative exam contributes 60 per cent of a learner’s final placement score.

The remaining 40 per cent comes from school-based assessments conducted in Grades 7 and 8 through projects, practicals, and written tasks that track day-to-day learning.

This is a sharp departure from KCPE’s one-off approach, which critics said encouraged cramming, exam irregularities, and intense pressure on children as young as 12.

KNEC has also digitised many aspects of the KJSEA, including the administration of certain assessments.

“The innovation around this is that all the candidates who sat this assessment did so on an e-platform, which attests to the digital skills the learners in CBE are acquiring.”

For learners who missed Grade 6 Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) or came from other countries, KNEC will administer a test to ensure no child is locked out of the transition.

In 2023, the then Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu ordered all pupils who had not sat for the KPSEA assessments to transition to junior secondary automatically.

However, Njeng’ere allayed fears that those students who missed the KPSEA assessments in 2022 will be disadvantaged.

“We have an assessment called qualifying test which is administered to children who may have come from other countries or missed the KPSEA,” he said.

This aligns with the government’s 100 per cent transition policy, which guarantees every learner progresses to junior and senior secondary school.