EXPLAINER: What your child will study in Grade 10

A total of 1,130,669 learners sat the inaugural Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) marking the end of Junior School in Grade 9.

Kenya’s education system will enter a defining moment in January 2026 when the first cohort of Grade 9 learners transitions to Senior School, marking the start of the fourth and final phase of Basic Education under the Competency-Based Education (CBE) system.

This transition brings the promise of a re-engineered learning experience centred on talent, interest and career pathways—an entirely different journey from the 8-4-4 structure that shaped generations before them.

For the 1,130,669 learners aged between 15 and 17, this will be the beginning of a three-year pre-tertiary, pre-university and pre-career programme that runs from Grades 10 to 12.

It is a stage designed to help them discover who they are, sharpen what they can do, and explore what they may become in the world of work, enterprise and higher learning.

Placement into Senior School

The selection of Senior Schools was conducted between June 9 and June 30 through an online portal managed by the Ministry of Education.

Learners, with guidance from their parents, teachers and career counsellors, selected 12 schools in their order of preference.

The placement system is designed to be fair and interest-based. It considers three criteria:

• Assessment outcomes from the Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA)
• Learner interests and talents, and
• Available capacity in preferred schools.

This cohort sat the inaugural KJSEA between October 27 and November 3—a landmark moment that formally closed the Junior School chapter under CBE and paved the way for the transition.

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba, speaking on Friday, November 21 at the close of the 2025 national exam season, said the ministry would prioritise speedy and credible processing of results.

“We are entering a new phase where fairness, speed and transparency will define how results are processed and released,” he said, describing the 2025 assessments “a turning point for integrity and efficiency”.

Even though the exams ran smoothly across most centres, the CS confirmed that 418 cases of malpractice were reported.

He reiterated that consequences would strictly follow the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) Act 2012.

The law says that a candidate caught committing an irregularity in any paper will have results for the entire subject cancelled.

If widespread cheating occurs in a centre, results for the whole centre can be annulled.

The harshest penalty is reserved for impersonation. Section 31 of the Act states that a culprit shall face up to two years in prison, or a fine not exceeding Sh2 million shillings, or both.

Additionally, the offender is barred from taking any KNEC assessment for three years.

What Senior School Aims to Achieve

The heart of the transition lies in preparing learners for real-world demands.

By the time they finish Grade 12, students are expected to emerge as empowered, ethical and socially responsible citizens ready to contribute to national development, join technical training, or proceed to university.

In line with recommendations from the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms, every student in Senior School will study seven subjects—four compulsory and three optional—carefully selected to align with their chosen pathway.

Compulsory Learning Areas

A circular issued by the Ministry of Education in August outlined the compulsory subjects: English,  Kiswahili (or Kenya Sign Language), Community Service Learning (CSL) and Mathematics.

STEM students will undertake Core Mathematics while Essential Mathematics is for non-STEM learners.

However, non-STEM learners (Arts and Sports Science or Social Sciences) may be allowed to take Core Mathematics if their Junior School results support the decision.

Choosing Optional Subjects

Learners will choose three optional subjects, known under CBE as learning areas, guided by their interests and the requirements of their career pathway.

At least two of the three must come from the learner’s selected pathway.

There are three pathways in Senior School:

• Arts and Sports Science
• Social Sciences 
• Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

A learner can under exceptional cases be allowed to select subjects across different pathways, but only where career requirements justify the choice—for example, a budding sports journalist combining Languages with Sports Science.

Below is a table showing the Pathway → Track → Optional Subject structure

Weekly Timetable: 40 Periods

Senior Schools will run a uniform weekly timetable consisting of 40 periods, each lasting 40 minutes.

This ensures balance between compulsory subjects, pathway-specific learning and personal development.

Breakdown of periods per week:

• English – 5 periods Kiswahili – 5 periods
• Core/Essential Mathematics – 5 periods
• Community Service Learning – 3 periods
• Optional Subject 1 – 5 periods
• Optional Subject 2 – 5 periods
• Optional Subject 3 – 5 periods
• Physical Education – 3 periods
• ICT Skills – 2 periods
• Learner Personal/Group Study – 1 period
• Pastoral/Religious Programme of Instruction – 1 period

This structure reflects CBE’s commitment to nurturing holistic learners—academically capable, physically healthy, emotionally grounded and socially responsible.

Why This Transition Matters

The shift to pathways and specialised subjects means learners will no longer be moulded by a one-size-fits-all curriculum.

Instead, they will pursue personalised learning trajectories. A student passionate about robotics can take Computer Science, Physics and Core Mathematics.

A gifted dancer can pursue Music and Dance within the Arts pathway. A multilingual learner can specialise in foreign languages under the Social Sciences pathway.

A farming-oriented learner may follow Agriculture and Home Science in Applied Sciences.

This approach recognises that ability is diverse, that talent has value, and that the economy needs many kinds of expertise—from coders to dramatists, linguists to technicians, sports scientists to agripreneurs.

Senior School is therefore not just another stage; it is the gateway to careers, to self-awareness and to a more dynamic national workforce.

Looking Ahead

As 2026 approaches, the country stands at the threshold of a transformative chapter.

Thousands of teachers are undergoing training in pathway-specific pedagogy, schools are equipping laboratories and studios, and infrastructure mapping is underway to ensure every learner is placed where their talents can flourish.

In his State of the Nation Address on November 20 before the bicameral Parliament, President William Ruto announced an unprecedented scale of teacher recruitment and school infrastructure expansion.

He said 24,000 more teachers would be recruited by January, bringing the total to 100,000 since he assumed office in September 2022.

Ruto noted that the current recruitment drive is aimed at easing the severe teacher shortages in public schools and ensuring effective delivery of the CBE.

“We tackled the teachers’ crisis head-on. We have hired 76,000 teachers, with 24,000 more expected to be hired by January next year. That will translate to 100,000 teachers in three years, an achievement unmatched in the history of our country,” Ruto said.

Through collaboration between the national government and the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF), he added, 28,000 new classrooms have so far been constructed across the country.

He further noted that 1,600 laboratories are currently under construction to ease congestion in schools.

Ruto said more young people are enrolling in programmes in ICT, engineering, agriculture, hospitality and design, reflecting a shift toward skills-based training.

For learners, the transition presents an opportunity to define their future more actively than any previous generation of Kenyan students.

For parents and guardians, understanding the structure of Grade 10 is therefore essential.

However, some parents have expressed uncertainty over the readiness, exhaustiveness and soundness of the curriculum content and its proposed delivery approaches.

Concerns have also been raised about the capacity of some schools to adequately support learners amid limited resources, as well as whether teachers have received sufficient training to deliver CBE competently.

In localities where the number of schools is inadequate to accommodate learners under day programmes, boarding has been permitted.

Yet the ability and preparedness of parents to support learners in the new learning areas continues to cause anxiety.

While Junior School learners (Grades 6–9) were domiciled in primary schools due to their young age, Senior School students may have to travel farther depending on their school choices and career pathways.

This means the psychological unpreparedness of both learners and parents—many of whom will be sending their children away from home for the first time—cannot be overlooked.

Furthermore, the lack of a clear precedent means the actual financial implications may be difficult for some parents to plan for in the absence of a reliable point of reference.

Even so, what remains clear is that the Competency-Based Education system is steadily taking shape—one cohort, one school and one pathway at a time.