Taking a U-turn on the choice of mathematics, the Ministry of Education publishes advice for the placement of Grade 10 students.
The guidelines for placing Grade 10 students under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) have been released by the Ministry of Education (MoE).
The transition for the first Grade 9 cohort will be marked by the official start of senior school in January 2026, which includes Grades 10 through 12.
Fred Odhiambo, the deputy director of the MoE, stated in a statement made on Wednesday that there would be four categories of senior schools, covering pathways, housing, gender, and special needs.
The pathways are split into two: double pathways senior school, which includes STEM, Arts & Sports, and Social Sciences, and double pathways senior school, which represents Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Arts & Sports Science (STEAMS).
The lodging option will include hybrid senior schools for students who live and don’t live at school, as well as day senior schools for those who travel home every day.
As per the criteria, there will be two gender divisions: mixed-sex, where both genders participate, and single sex, which includes all-girls and all-boys schools.
Students with autism, cerebral palsy, cognitive challenges, and deaf-blindness would be placed under the Special Needs category, which would include Vocational Senior Schools and Special Needs for School- Hearing, Visual, and Physically Impaired.
The learner will choose 12 institutions for their selected route, which includes four schools in the first option subject combination, four more in the second option subject combination, and the last four in the third option subject combination.
According to Odhiambo, nine of the twelve schools chosen in the pathway category will be boarding schools, with three coming from the learners’ home county and six coming from outside their home county or county of residence. The remaining three schools will be day schools, with students coming from their home sub-county or sub-county of residence.
โA school that does not permit open placement may seek to be pre-selected if it satisfies the requirements established by the Ministry of Education during pre-selection,โ he added.
Additionally, he said that the placement will be determined by equity and school capacity, the learner’s choice, merit, and psychometric assessments.
He stated that the placement results will indicate where students have been placed during the admission and replacement process.
“All institutions, public and private, will admit Grade 10 students through the Kenya Education Management Information System (KEMIS),” he said, adding that “admission letters/joining instructions shall be accessed online using the learner’s assessment number.”
“Daily online reporting shall be monitored through KEMIS, and no principal shall enroll a learner into KEMIS before they physically report to the school.”
According to the rules, schools with openings must announce them via their respective county directors of education, and students who want to switch schools must apply through the heads of junior schools at least two weeks before the official grade 10 reporting date.
โPriority will be given to those who had previously chosen their desired schools with the Ministry of Education’s approval, based on the proven capacity of the senior schools,โ he stated.
“The instructions for joining will be available online once a request is approved. Keep in mind that schools should never give out hard copies of letters for replacement cases. Replacement will be done once, and there will be no turning back.
The student’s academic achievement, interests, and the teacher’s feedback will be taken into consideration by an automated placement system.
In addition, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has now stated that mathematics will continue to be required in elementary and secondary schools.
According to Ogamba, this occurred after significant stakeholder discussions, during which a suggestion made last month to make it voluntary was rejected.
Ogamba said on Thursday, April 24, that “the majority of stakeholders during competency based county dialogues were of the view that mathematics as a subject should be compulsory in senior school.”
Students in the arts will now be need to study a simpler version of the curriculum.
As a significant departure from the phased-out 8-4-4 system, this contradicts an earlier plan to make Maths optional for students under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).
The curriculum would have required pupils to study four essential topicsโEnglish or Kenyan Sign Language, Kiswahili, Physical Education, and Community Service Learningโand then select three more courses from a pool of thirty-eight alternatives.
But the government has since abandoned this action.
“We have listened to your concerns, consulted with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), and decided that some form of mathematics be made mandatory for the two pathways that are not STEM,” Ogamba stated.
The Education CS says that students in the STEM route will study pure mathematics, while the other two pathways will have a simpler formal math.
“Some form of mathematics will be made compulsory for the two pathways that are not the STEM pathways. This will make us have math in all the three pathways in senior schools,” he continued.
The shift in events occurs following significant criticism of the concept from teachers, education stakeholders, and parents.
One of the most significant changes under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) was announced by Belio Kipsang’, the then-permanent secretary for elementary education, on May 13 that mathematics will no longer be a mandatory topic for students moving on to senior secondary school.
Rather, he said that students will be required to take English or Kenya Sign Language, Kiswahili, Physical Education, and Community Service Learning as mandatory subjects, and they will have a choice of 38 courses to help them plan their academic and professional paths.