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Grade Nine candidates take KJSEA English language paper at Moi Nyeri Complex Primary School in Nyeri County on October 27, 2025.
As the calendar turns to 2026, the Kenyan education sector stands at its most critical crossroads in nearly four decades.
This is the year the competency-based education (CBE) system enters its final, most consequential stretch with the rollout of senior school.
The first cohort of CBE learners has now transitioned to Grade 10, marking their entry into senior school, having completed three years in junior school where they undertook the Kenya Junior Secondary Education Assessment (KJSEA).
Citam Schools Woodley Deputy Principal Bridgid Mukabi (right) joins her students in celebrating their top student Chris Nyabwari at the school following the release of KJSEA results.
While CBE represents a significant shift toward a more holistic, skills-oriented system that emphasises critical thinking and real-world readiness over exam-driven rote learning, its implementation has been far from smooth.
Three years after the launch of the junior school level, which covers Grades 7, 8, and 9, the country continues to grapple with structural weaknesses, including teacher shortages that currently stand at 72,000.
This year, universities are also actively trying to claw back lost academic time through coordinated recovery plans and revised academic calendars, aided by commitments from lecturers and government directives.
Public university lecturers and staff who had gone on strike for 49 days agreed to a two-phased payout settlement of the arrears accrued under the 2017–2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
Members of the University Academic Staff Union and the Kenya University Staff Union during a peaceful demonstration in Nairobi on September 24, 2025.
Given that the National Treasury has lamented constrained fiscal space, stakeholders are adopting a wait-and-see attitude on how the State will fulfil this financial obligation to avoid interruptions to studies.
But as universities play catch-up on lost time, the pressure could potentially create stress for students due to intense study loads, particularly for those in their final year as they grapple with internships and nearing graduation dates.
As universities churn out graduates, unemployment data offers little comfort. Youth unemployment (typically ages 15–34) remains significantly higher than the national average, reflecting labour market challenges for young job-seekers.
The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector appears poised to address the unemployment challenge in the country.
TVET Principal Secretary Esther Thaara Muoria explained that the government has enhanced the marketing of TVET institutions to ensure that Kenyans who are not in employment or training are enrolled to increase their chances of a better life.
“When this government came into office, there were 350,000 students in TVET institutions, and now we are at 850,000, even though our dream was to be at one million by now. We are not quite there, but by the end of 2026 we want to be at two million,” she said.
The TVETs are scaling up their capacity in readiness for CBE learners who are set to transition to the tertiary level in 2029.
Employability of graduates
TVETs have adopted the Competency-Based Education and Training (CBET) approach, where learners are taught and assessed based on practical skills they can actually perform, not just time spent in class or written exams.
“CBET is now well anchored, and we have also modularised our curriculum, where we have broken it down into pragmatic skills so that every student is equipped by the time they complete a particular module,” said Dr Muoria.
To increase the employability of graduates, the sector is aggressively teaming up with industry in order to churn out skilled individuals who meet industry needs.
“We have formed industry teams who engage with industry daily to understand what skills are required, and already in the last one month we have secured 3,200 slots that industry has requested us to train for,” she said.
But beyond the classroom, a different kind of storm is brewing in the boardrooms of the nation’s major teachers’ unions. The year 2026 marks national elections for both the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet), and the stakes have never been higher.
Former Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion is reportedly eyeing a dramatic comeback, citing immense pressure from teachers. This has ignited a legal and political showdown with the incumbent, Mr Collins Oyuu, who is struggling with member dissatisfaction over the rollout of the Social Health Authority (SHA).
Former Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion during interview with the Nation.
However, a legislative move to domicile junior school within primary schools could see Knut absorb thousands of JSS teachers currently represented by Kuppet.
Meanwhile, younger, digital-native teachers are threatening to form their own independent union, claiming that both Knut and Kuppet are out of touch with the modern educator’s needs.
Knut is also eyeing the fast-tracking and operationalisation of Sessional Paper No. 1 of 2025, which seeks to formalise comprehensive schools within existing primary schools headed by primary school heads. Once this is achieved, junior school teachers who are currently Kuppet members would be absorbed by Knut, which represents primary school teachers.
However, junior school teachers have since gone to court to sue the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the Ministry of Education over the move, even as they seek autonomy.
Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers Secretary-General Akello Misori (center), national chairman Omboko Milemba (right) and national organizing secretary Paul Maingi during a media briefing on September 06, 2024.
Kuppet Secretary General Akello Misori and Chairman Omboko Milemba are facing rebellion from young Gen Z teachers who want to form their own union to speak for junior school teachers.
Both unions are facing internal pressure for fresh leadership as younger, digital-native teachers prepare to vote.
In Kuppet, rumours of a leadership transition are rife, with Chairman Milemba balancing his role as an MP and Secretary General Misori approaching the twilight of his union career, while a new crop of radical branch secretaries eyes the national stage.
In Knut, Mr Oyuu will be seeking to solidify his legacy. After successfully navigating the union out of near collapse during the Sossion era, the incumbent is now facing members who feel shortchanged following the hurried enrolment of teachers into the state-funded health insurance scheme, SHA, which teachers say was done without consultation.
