EXPLAINER: How your child will join senior school in 2026

Kenya’s pioneer CBC learners in Grade 9 are about to make history. The 1.2 million students will sit the Kenya Junior Secondary Education Assessment (KJSEA) in November before moving to senior school in January 2026.

This marks the first national exam under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), introduced in 2017 to replace the 8-4-4 system.

What changes in senior school placement?

The Ministry of Education has abolished the old classification of schools—National, Extra-County, County, and Sub-County.

National schools will offer all three pathways, while most others will have STEM plus one more.

“We will now categorize schools as either double or triple pathway institutions, depending on their capacity,” said Education CS Julius Ogamba when releasing the guidelines.

What does this mean for  parents and learners

Selections will be made online at selection.education.go.ke, with teachers guiding both learners and parents.

Why stem is being pushed

Basic Education PS Julius Bitok has encouraged learners to pick the STEM pathway, saying it builds critical skills like problem-solving and creativity.

“We want 60 percent of learners to go the STEM way. The government is already building 1,600 new labs to support this,” he said during the Africa’s Young Women in Science Summit in Nairobi.

Placement will be merit-based, considering performance, gender, and learner interests, while ensuring fairness within each sub-county.

The process is fully automated through the Kenya Education Management Information System (KEMIS), which integrates teacher input and learner assessments.

Education analyst Dr. Emmanuel Manyasa, however, warned that the transition could face teething problems.

“This should have given learners more meaningful choices, but poor implementation means the first cohort may face challenges, especially competition for the most sought-after schools,” he noted.

“How to address these challenges is reverting to the CBC framework because we have deviated from the CBC framework and that is what is causing us lots of challenges. We need to find a way back to the framework as designed,” he added.

Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) Secretary General Akelo Misori agrees, saying the foundation for the CBC pathways was not well laid.

“Some learners are interested in sports but never had opportunities to develop such talents. Others were not exposed to laboratories to prepare them for sciences. This first cohort may not be very strong in their choices, though schools are ready to receive them,” he said.

Misori also challenged universities to train enough teachers with specialized skills to match the new curriculum, while stressing the need for better infrastructure to support skills development.

He further emphasized on the need to develop the right infrastructure for the accommodation of skills and laying the foundation for knowledge.

Placement of learners into Grade 10

Placement will be based on learners’ choice, merit, psychometric tests, equity, and school capacity.Top 6 learners per gender in each STEM track per sub-county will be placed for boarding in schools of choice.

Top 3 learners per gender in each Social Science track per sub-county will be placed for Boarding in schools of choice.

Top 2 learners per gender in each Arts and Sports Science track per sub-county will be placed in boarding schools of their choice.

Placement of candidates with Achievement Level averaging 7 and 8 per track will go to boarding schools of their choice.

Admission and reporting

Admission letters will be available online. Reporting will be tracked digitally, with replacements strictly controlled and done before schools reopen.

Replacements will work as follows:

Schools with vacancies will declare them through their respective county directors of education.

Learners who wish to change schools will make requests through the heads of junior schools at least two weeks before the official Grade 10 reporting date.

Priority shall be given to those who had earlier selected the schools they are requesting for.

Approvals by the Ministry of Education will be based on senior schools’ documented capacity.

Upon a request’s approval, the joining instructions shall be accessed online. At no time shall a school issue printed letters for replacement cases.

Replacement will be done once and shall be irreversible.

It is important to note that every learner will secure a place in senior school. What matters most is choosing pathways wisely—based on strengths, interests, and future career goals.