How new CBE pathways will benefit students

Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) Chief Executive Officer Dr Mercy Wahome. [Spice FM]

As the country grapples with youth unemployment, rising poverty, and urban insecurity, the government is moving away from an  overreliance on academic grades toward the development of practical skills.

The shift under the new Competency-Based Education and Training (CBE) policy is modelled to equip learners with skills ready for the job market. 

According to Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) Chief Executive Officer Dr Mercy Wahome, the changing economic reality requires a fundamental rethink of how success in education is measured.

“Although academic excellence is good, for the country to industrialise, there is need to move towards skills acquisition,” she said on Spice FM on Tuesday, January 27. 

“This conversation of measuring performance based on those who go to university needs to start dying off as we get into CBC, because we have overemphasised grades.”

Wahome noted that many learners who do not attain a C+ still succeed through alternative pathways.

“They start off with a certificate, go to a diploma, and still end up in university, but nobody talks about them. We have over-glorified C+ and above, and that conversation will change when we look at competency-based education.”

For decades, she added, success in Kenya’s education system has been narrowly defined by academic grades, especially the coveted C+ that guarantees entry to public universities.

Of the nearly 900,000 candidates who sat the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination in 2024, about 246,000, roughly 26 percent, qualified for university admission.

In the previous year, at least 270,000 of nearly one million candidates (27pc) attained a C+ and above, leaving more than 700,000 young people annually outside the public university system.

Under the CBE system, learners are guided by ability, interest and practical competence rather than exam recall. Wahome argued that the former 8-4-4 system rewarded memorisation over understanding.

“When someone says my child has an A, it may not be because of understanding but recall. Some people have knowledge but test poorly, and that follows them even into higher education,” said Dr Wahome.

She further added that technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions are already aligned with the new system and better suited to future workforce needs. “Students spend about 30 per cent of their time in class and the rest in industry, getting hands-on skills. That is where we want to be as a country.”

In developed economies such as Singapore, she noted, nearly 80 percent of learners transition into technical and vocational pathways. In other African countries, between 28 and 35 percent pursue TVET.

Kenya, which fell to about 11 percent during the peak of grade fixation, has gradually increased TVET enrolment to roughly 27 percent.

“The target is a healthy balance where about 30 per cent go to university and 70 per cent pursue technical and vocational pathways,” she stated