When the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) released the first-ever Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) last year, many parents were at a loss on how to interpret the results. There were no mean scores ranked from A to E that they had been used to or total marks for placement to senior schools.
Instead, the council reported the results for individual candidates on a 4-level spectrum: ‘Exceeded Expectations (EE), Met Expectations (ME), Approaching Expectations (AE) and Below Expectations (BE)’. Further, each of the four levels of reporting are further broken down into two rungs to form eight-point scoring levels.
Another change was that the results were released from a simple room at New Mitihani House, without much fanfare and later parents and candidates could download them on their mobile phones or computers. There was no ranking of candidates but the result slips indicated the senior school pathways the learners best qualified for. The junior schools were also not ranked. A new era had dawned.
The new way of reporting learners’ achievement in national examinations and assessments has progressively replaced the decades-old ranking by mean scores attained by candidates and schools. According to KNEC chief executive officer Dr David Njengere, the change in presentation of results is to focus on the learner and also bring down the stakes that have been associated with examinations.
The KJSEA results will based on a reporting structure based on an 8-level quantitative score for each of the learning areas. Each of the four levels of reporting will be further broken down into two to form the eight-point scoring levels. For example, a candidate whose qualitative score is ‘Exceeding Expectation’ in mathematics will have a score of either 7 or 8 as the quantitative score whereas a candidate whose qualitative score is ‘Below Expectation' will have a qualitative score of either 1 or 2.
Previously, after every national examination cycle, a national ritual focused on the schools, and candidates with the highest mean scores in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). The announcement would be followed by celebrations in schools with the top performers being carried shoulder-high by teachers, parents and their colleagues before media cameras.
These ceremonies shaped public perceptions of schools, and consequently influenced parents’ choices of school for their children. They were also used for publicity and marketing of schools.
With the KCPE having been phased out in 2023, the last KCSE candidates will sit their examinations next year, effectively replacing the 8-4-4 system in basic education with the competency-based education (CBE). That will be the last mean score-based national examination in the sub-sector.
Under CBE, learners undertake the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) at the end of Grade 6 and the KJSEA at the end of Grade 9. The new assessment does not produce the aggregate scores traditionally used to rank learners.
Dr Njengere has in the past warned schools against publishing misleading analyses of the KJSEA, saying the assessment reports learners’ achievements in individual subjects rather than producing a single aggregate score.
Kenya National Examination Council CEO Dr David Njengere makes his remarks during the launch of the 2025 National Examination Assessments Season on October 03, 2025 at New Mitihani House in Nairobi.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
“Unlike the former system, KJSEA does not provide an aggregate score. Why? Because CBE is about nurturing individual potential, not ranking learners. Each subject is assessed independently, and learners’ achievements are reported using performance levels, not totals,” Dr Njengere said in a previous interview with Nation.
He said the approach ensures that a learner’s excellence in one subject is not overshadowed by weaker performance in another, cautioning against analyses purporting to show the mean score of a school. Mean scores have been used to market schools but have been blamed by stakeholders for propagating unhealthy competition as well as unethical practices like cheating.
Unlike the 8-4-4 system that had one summative assessment at the end of each education level, CBE incorporates school-based and national assessments to track learners’ progress and competencies over the years.
In the new reporting, KNEC will provide schools with individual learner reports as well as school-specific performance analysis through the Competency-Based Assessment (CBA) portal on its website.
The Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (Kessha) secretary-general Abdi Noor Haji says school performance under CBE should be assessed holistically rather than through a single examination score.
“Parents and the public should consider learners’ competency development, academic progress, talent identification, discipline, innovation, learner welfare and progression to the next stage of education,” he said.
Mr Haji has urged the Ministry of Education to establish a standardised framework for reporting school performance that provides reliable information while recognising the different circumstances in which schools operate.
He says the framework should reflect learners’ overall development rather than focus solely on assessment results. While supporting transparency and public accountability, Mr Haji cautions against publishing KPSEA and KJSEA results in a way that creates unnecessary competition among schools.
“Assessment data should promote improvement, not ranking or labelling of schools and learners,” he said.
Mr Haji says the pressure to maintain high KCSE mean scores subjected school heads to intense scrutiny, encouraged examination-oriented teaching and exposed learners to stress and unhealthy competition.
Although the pressure sometimes encouraged hard work, he says it could overshadow learners’ diverse abilities and holistic development. It also contributed to examination malpractice and other undesirable practices, he added.
“A holistic and standardised assessment framework should be adopted that recognises the full contribution of schools to learners’ development, rather than relying on examination results alone,” he said.
The deputy secretary-general of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Hesbon Otieno says the previous examination system placed considerable pressure on teachers to produce good results.
He says the emphasis on summative assessment under KCPE and KCSE pushed teachers towards ‘drilling’ learners for examinations rather than focusing on imparting knowledge and developing their abilities.
Grade Nine candidates take KJSEA English language paper at Moi Nyeri Complex Primary School in Nyeri County on October 27, 2025.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Pressure from school stakeholders to achieve high rankings forced teachers to spend long hours preparing learners for examinations, leaving them with limited freedom to respond to individual learners’ abilities, he says.
Under CBE, Mr Otieno says, these pressures have relatively eased. He supports the public release of assessment outcomes but cautions against presenting results in a manner that creates winners and losers. Performance data broken down by learning area could help schools identify weaknesses and determine where more effort is required, he says.
“We can gauge the performance of an institution by how many students have transited to the different pathways with ease and choice, not being pushed to what their abilities can't,” he said.
Mr Otieno says teachers’ performance should also be assessed in the context of the learning environment, arguing that educators should not be expected to deliver results without adequate support and conducive working conditions.
The CEO of the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) Prof Charles Ong’ondo has also urged school heads to move away from overreliance on mean scores and focus on nurturing individual learners’ abilities.
“Colleagues, CBE will reduce the pressure you have lived with for years. I know you are implementing it while still carrying the burden of the 8-4-4 system and the obsession with mean scores,” Prof Ong’ondo told principals during their annual conference in June.
He said schools should allow learners to pursue subjects aligned with their strengths rather than push them into a uniform academic mould.
“Your responsibility is to nurture every learner’s potential, not to force every child into the same mould,” he said.
According to Dr Njengere Knec will issue results showing each learner’s strengths in individual learning areas, alongside a statistical analysis of their strengths across senior-school pathways through cluster weights.
“The best way to enlighten the public is first to draw their attention to aspirations of the education reform, which is Nurturing Every Learner’s Potential,” he said.
The chairperson of the National Parents Association, Silas Obuhatsa, said emphasis on examination performance contributed to learners hating school, strained family relationships and undermined children who failed to secure admission to institutions considered top performers.
“But with CBE, all schools are equally good,” he said, calling for institutions to be assessed based on their ability to nurture learners’ talents and provide quality education.
He also called for learners’ assessment results to be confidential, citing the government’s emphasis on data privacy.
“The government of late is talking of data privacy and with this in mind, it should cook its own goose by keeping learners’ results strictly to individuals,” he said.
Mr Obuhatsa said pressure to maintain high mean scores had contributed to excessive workloads, strained teacher-learner relationships and inadequate rest for learners. He cited cases of learners spending long hours studying, missing holidays and enduring pressure from teachers and parents to produce high mean scores in examinations.
“I know of a school where students only slept four hours in a week of seven days. Total madness,” he said.
He said poor results had also triggered conflicts between schools and parents, while families incurred financial strain paying for private tuition.
Mr Obuhatsa said currently, most schools have prioritised practical activities, guidance and counselling, and talent development rather than excessive bookwork and examination preparation.
