Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang has said the ministry hopes to have each Senior School offering two career pathways for Grade 10 to 12 learners.
He said having Senior Schools offer two career pathways will make economic sense of what has already been invested in the institutions.
"We expect that every school will at least have two pathways to make economic sense of the investments we put into our schools," the PS said.
He said some national schools will offer up to three career pathways.
The three pathways are Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Social Sciences commonly known as humanities and the final one is performing arts, music and athletics,
Belio spoke on Wednesday when he officiated a stakeholder’s engagement on Senior School and Teacher Education at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development in Nairobi.
He called on stakeholders to support the ministry in mapping schools into different pathways.
The PS said it is key to have a compass that will give proper direction on how Senior School will be conducted as the ministry prepares to accommodate the first cohort of learners in 2026.
Belio said it is key to know what is key for a learner and the country at large as mapping out the career paths takes place.
Among what Belio wants the stakeholders to consider is whether the learners will be allowed to have a major and a minor career pathway.
"Can a STEM individual be allowed to do a minor pathway, or do we have them on a straight path? Will a learner in humanities be expected to have some concept of science?" he posed.
He also urged the stakeholders to consider what the depth of learning will be for the three years learners will be in Senior School
"How deep do we want to go? How much of it will be theory and how much will be practical? How do we want to do assessments ? " he posed.
On March 20, Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu revealed that they had prepared a session paper to be discussed in Parliament on the number of career pathways a school will offer.
"There might be areas where we might have pure STEM. There might be areas where there is a mixture such that the school is offering humanities and STEM as well, but I don't want to pre-empt that particular debate because I know the sessional paper, once it is discussed in parliament, will give a way forward," Machogu told Senators.
Further, he noted that the KICD has worked on the curriculum that will guide the Grade 10 learners.
The purpose of having three paths, Machogu explained, is to allow for specialisation.
"We want to nurture talent. Not all of us can be talented in sciences, or humanities and some of us are very good in arts. We want to nurture learners where one is identified to be good in a certain area," Machogu said.
