Deputy Director Fred Odhiambo [KNEC/FB]The Ministry of Education has announced the criteria that will guide the placement of Grade 10 learners under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
Senior school, which covers Grades 10 to 12, will officially begin in January 2026, marking the transition for the pioneer Grade 9 cohort.
Speaking on Wednesday, the deputy director said there will be four categorisations of senior schools, which include pathways, accommodation, gender and special needs.
The pathways are divided into two; double (which represents Science Technology Engineering, Mathematics and Arts& Sports Science -STEAMS) on one hand and triple pathways senior school (which involves STEM, Arts & Sports and Social Sciences.
For the accommodation category, it will consist of day senior schools for those who commute home daily and hybrid senior schools for learners who both the learners who reside in the school and not.
According to the guidelines, there will be two divisions in gender, consisting of Single Sex (girls-only schools and boys-only schools) and mixed-sex where both genders join.
The Special needs category would be grouped into Special needs for school- Hearing, Visual and Physically impaired and Vocational senior schools which involves learners with autism, celebral palsy, cognitive difficulties and deaf-blind.
On the pathway selection, the learner will select 12 schools for their chosen pathway which outlines four schools in first choice track and subject combination, another four schools in second choice subject combination while the remaining four going to the third choice subject combination.
Odhiambo said that based on the 12 schools selected in the pathway category, 9 will be boarding schools.
On the same note, he noted that of the nine boarding schools, three will originate from the learners' home county and 6 from outside their home county/county of residence.
The remaining three will be day schools, with students coming from their home sub-county/sub-county of residence.
“On pre-selection, a school that does not allow open placement can apply to be pre-selected if it meets the criteria defined by the Ministry of Education,” he said.
The placement would be made based on the learner’s choice, merit, psychometric tests, equity and school capacity.
During the admission and replacement process, he said the placement results will show where learners have been placed.
“Admission letters/joining instructions shall be accessed online using the learner’s assessment number, whereby all schools, both public and private, shall admit Grade 10 through the Kenya Education Management Information System (KEMIS),” he explained.
“No principal shall enter a learner into KEMIS before he/she reports to the school physically. Daily online reporting shall be monitored through KEMIS.”
The guidelines stated that schools with vacancies will declare through their respective county directors of education, and learners who wish to change schools will make requests through the heads of junior schools at least 2 weeks before the official grade 10 reporting date.
“Priority shall be given to those who had earlier selected the schools they are requesting with approvals by the Ministry of Education based on senior schools’ documented capacity,” he said.
“Upon a request’s approval, the joining instructions shall
be accessed online. Note that at no time shall a school issue printed letters
for replacement cases. Replacement will be done once and shall be irreversible.”
An automated place system will factor in the student’s interest, the teacher’s input and academic performance.
