CBE transition: How students will be placed in senior school

Kakamega Hill School KJSEA candidates prepare to sit for a paper on October 27, 2025. [Benjamin Sakwa, Standard]

More than 1.13 million learners who sat the 2025 Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) will on Friday find out which senior schools they have been placed in.

This marks the first transition under the new Competency-Based Education (CBE) system.

The Ministry of Education says there is enough space for everyone, with Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba reporting that there are more than 2.2 million admission places in senior schools across the country.

On Wednesday, Basic Education Principal Secretary Julius Bitok stated that the placement process is now complete, and all learners will transition to senior school.

“This week, we have been working on the placement of all learners to senior school of their choice,” Bitok said.

Learners will receive placement results through their junior schools. They will also be given seven days to make changes, should they not like the schools they have been placed, between December 23 and 30.

The changes will be made through their junior school headteachers using an online portal.

Under the new system, each learner will first be placed in one of three pathways: STEM, Social Sciences, or Arts and Sports. The pathway will then determine the senior school they join.

Top-performing learners in the Grade 9 assessment will automatically get a place in their school of choice.

The best candidate in each sub-county will be placed in a national school, now classified as C1 schools.

In the STEM pathway, the top two learners per gender in each sub-county will be admitted to a boarding school of their choice.

For Social Sciences and Arts and Sports, the top learner per gender in each sub-county will also secure a boarding school place.

Learners who scored Exceeding Expectation 1 and 2- the highest ranking under the KJSEA assessment- in any pathway will qualify for boarding schools of their choice.

The ministry will also use the County Revenue Allocation (CRA) formula to share slots.

The formula considers population, poverty levels, land size, income gaps and equal share. The population carries the biggest weight.

In the formula population carries 42 per cent of the total weight, equal share carries (22 per cent), poverty (14 per cent), income distance (13 per cent) and geographical size (nine per cent).

“That formula takes care of population, size, poverty and such other components so that we are as fair as possible. A child from northern Kenya can access an opportunity the same way as a child from western, to join a school in Nairobi or any other part of the country,” Bitok said.

If the CRA model is applied strictly, counties with high candidate numbers such as Nairobi (71,022), Kakamega (59,384) and Nakuru (54,028) stand to benefit the most based on population.

Parents are, however, concerned that learners may be send to schools they did not choose, especially those with fewer resources.

With National Schools now categorised as C1 schools still holding the strongest appeal for learners, a cutthroat competition to get admission is anticipated even as the ministry insists there will be no ranking.

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba on Thursday stated that schools have enough capacity following the exit of this year’s KCSE candidates.

“The total capacity of the 9,540 senior schools is 2.2 million learners. A total of 996,000 learners will be exiting secondary school after the KCSE this year. Senior schools will therefore have an extra classroom left by the fact that we only have three classes at this level,” Ogamba said.

Despite the CS’s assurance, the placement process faces its biggest test yet after students shunned more than 5,000 schools during the selection in second term.

Parents interviewed by The Standard expressed concern that despite abolishing ranking, national schools still enjoy better resources such as modern labs, better boarding facilities and more teachers giving them a strong advantage over other categories.

Silas Obuhatsa, the National Parents Association (NPA) chairperson, warned that forcing placement in schools that students did not choose will only heighten mistrust in the system. 

He has asked the Ministry of Education to harmonise placement decisions with learners’ expectations, arguing that transparency must guide every stage of the transition to senior school.