Junior school pupils at a school in Machakos, October 3, 2024. /EDUMIN/XThe end of this year will mark the stransition of Grade 9 learners into Senior School comprising Grades 10 thru to 12, which will mark the final phase of basic education under the Competency-Based Curriculum.
Grade 9 is the pioneer cohort of the CBC system introduced in January 2017 when the government initiated the phased changeover from the now 40-year-old 8-4-4 curriculum.
To transition to Senior School, the nine graders will in November write the Kenya Junior Secondary Education Assessment (KJSEA), marking the first time a national exam will be held at the Junior School level under the CBC.
KJSEA is a national summative assessment that will be administered by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC).
It will account for 60 per cent of the final mark while school-based assessment will account for 40 per cent.
After KJSEA, learners will be placed in various schools based on their career paths.
While Junior schools (Grade 7-9) were domiciled in parent primary schools, Senior schools will be a combination of the current four tiers of schools.
The four categories are national schools, extra county schools, county schools and sub-county schools.
However, under CBC, categorisation of schools will cease to exist and learners will be placed in Senior School based on three career pathways.
These are Arts and Sports Science; Science, Technology and Mathematics (STEM), and Social Science.
Each of the three career pathways have what will be known as tracks (subject combination, which under CBC are known as learning areas).
Arts and Sports Science has three tracks - Performing Arts, Sports and Visual Arts.
STEM has four tracks - Pure Science, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering and Career Technology Studies (CTS).
Social Science has two tracks - Humanities and Business Studies and Language and Literature.
Your child will be placed in Senior School based on how the outcome of the KJSEA aligns with the requirements of the three pathways (Arts and Sports Science; Science, Technology and Mathematics (STEM), and Social Science).
Schools will accomodate Grade 9 graduates based on their staffing and infrastructural capacity.
For instance, the current national schools have the best facilities in the country and may accomodate learners across all three pathways.
However, some extra county schools may be limited by infrastructural capacity to accomodate only allow two career pathways.
Besides the school-based formative assessment and the summertive KJSEA determining which career pathway a child will pursue, KNEC will dispatch questionnaires in which learners will state their interests and personality to help identify their strenghth.
This will help education officials pinpoint learners with special talents in areas like games or sciences to ensure they are placed in schools with the capacity to support their career choices sufficiently.
Placement
All the above factors nothwithstanding, three other factors will determine what school your child will be placed into.
Under CBC, focus is on placing learners in schools closest to their homes, meaning students will generally attend a nearby schools for their Senior education as is with Junior education where Grade 7-9 were integrated into existing primary schools.
It therefore goes to mean that placement of learners in Senior School will partly be influenced by availability of slots, equality and inclusivity.
Regions that have more schools will be at an advantage as this will mean more slots will be at their disposal.
Learners will also be placed in any school (guided by career pathway) regardless of gender, meaning existence of purely boys' schools or girls' schools will cease.
Regional balance and geographical location will also play a role in determining how learners will be placed in Senior School.
This aspect will save learners the need to travel miles away from home to attend a particular school as is currently the case under 8-4-4.
