Senior school gamble: Crisis looms in the countdown to Grade 10 intake

KICOSHEP junior secondary students recite a Swahili poem during Tamasha ya Ulibwende wa Kiswahili at Standard Group, Mombasa Road, on March 15, 2025. [David Gichuru, Standard] With barely five months before Grade 9 learners join Grade 10, the process is descending into confusion as it stumbles from one crisis to another. The Ministry of Education has changed rules so many times that parents, teachers, and even school heads are unsure what January will look like for the first senior secondary school cohort under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). In just eight months, the ministry under the leadership of Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has made and reversed key decisions on the number of subjects to be taught, which ones are compulsory, and how schools are categorised. At the same time, students snubbed thousands of senior schools in the recently concluded selection exercise as they fight for an admission to top institutions. The latest U-turn by the Ministry has expanded the number of subjects from seven to ten, redrawn the list of compulsory areas, and reignited controversy over the return of high-stakes examinations. A circular dated August 8 by Principal Secretary for Basic Education Julius Bitok ordered that all learners will take 10 subjects in senior school. Four will be compulsory and examinable - English, Kiswahili or Kenya Sign Language, Mathematics, and Community Service Learning. Three others - Physical Education (PE), ICT Skills, and Religious or Pastoral Instruction - will be compulsory but not tested. However, the introduction of subjects that will not be part of the testable content at the end of senior school has raised concerns among some stakeholders of the subjects being neglected. But, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) Chief executive Charles On'gondo on Saturday said they are in talks with the examination council to have some form of testing for the three subjects. "Those three other learning areas actually support. For example ICT is a very essential support in the process of learning. PE is necessary for physical development and Pastoral instruction for general engagement about spirituality," Ong'ondo said. Beyond this, students will then choose three other examinable subjects from one of three pathways: STEM; Arts and Sports Science, or Social Sciences. The decision to expand the subjects to be taught in senior school comes amid an initial turn around decision to make mathematics a compulsory subject. Mathematics, initially optional, has been made compulsory after a public backlash, causing confusion for parents and teachers. Initially, the March guidelines listed only English, Kiswahili or KSL, CSL, and PE as compulsory. Mathematics was to be optional for non-STEM students. That changed during the National Conversation on CBC on April 24, when Ogamba announced that "some form of mathematics" would be compulsory in all pathways. "Some form of mathematics will be made compulsory for the two pathways that are not the STEM pathways. We have STEM having pure maths and the other two having a form of maths," he said. In the circular released by Bitok last week, learners will take either Core Mathematics (for STEM students) or Essential Mathematics (for other pathways), though high performers in other streams can still opt for Core Maths. But the subject shuffle is only one part of the crisis. A placement nightmare is brewing after nearly half of senior schools were completely snubbed in the national selection. Out of 9,750 schools designated to host senior secondary classes, 5,000 had zero applicants. Most of the ignored institutions are day schools. The ministry had promised to scrap the old classification of secondary schools, but the new C1-C4 system looks like a replica of the previous classification that ranked schools in four categories from national to sub-county. C1 schools - the so-called national schools - will take the top students from each sub-county, while C4 is mostly sub-county and day schools.Education stakeholders say the labels have simply been renamed. "We now have national schools as C1, extra-county as C2, county as C3, and sub-county/day as C4, meaning there are no new categories but just a renaming of the previous arrangement,"Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association chairman Willy Kuria told The Standard. This, Kuria says, is set to reopen the battle for top institutions. In April, PS Bitok said the top students in each sub-county would be selected to join a C1 school. There is concern of students being placed in institutions they did not show interest in during the selection. The scramble for slots in traditionally best performing schools has resulted schools pushing students to attain high marks in junior school exams. The Standard has established that some schools are giving weekly tests to Grade 9 learners to prepare them for the Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA), which will determine senior school placement. "We have been sending our top students to Alliance, Mangu and Nairobi School and we want that to be maintained," a teacher at a Nairobi school who sought anonymity told the Standard. Other teachers interviewed said they have been issuing Grade 9 learners with tests each week to prepare them for the final exams. This is a shift from the initial design of the CBC that promised an end to the cutthroat, exam-focused culture of the 8-4-4 system. The assessment was meant to emphasise competencies over memorisation. "What we are seeing is an exam-heavy structure that contradicts CBC's original philosophy... in the school I teach for example, we have to do at least one assessment weekly," a teacher who did not want to be identified said. David Njengere, the Chief Executive of the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC), says the council's role is to take stock of a child's ability and if schools are doing anything different, this could expose the learners to more harm than good. He reveals that so far, schools have administered a project and two school-based assessments, which contribute 40 per cent of a learner's score, noting that learners by now know where their strengths lie. He advises students to pursue what they portray the most strength in. He also wants parents to have a mindset change and stop the focus on examinations. "Instead, they should focus on helping their children identify the pathways and tracks where they fit best. Senior school has a place for all children. For example, the whole of Nairobi is at a standstill right now because of sports. It is a serious industry," he added. According to the examination timetable released by KNEC, the KJSEA theory test is scheduled from October 27 to November 5. The transition to senior school is also facing teacher shortages, lack of specialised facilities like labs, studios, and workshops, and delays in confirming subject combinations. "The curriculum designs are ready, but infrastructure and teacher training remain major gaps," warned KUPPET Secretary-General Akelo Misori.

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