Grade 9 learners will have fewer senior schools to choose from after the Ministry of Education (MoE) cut the number of choices from 12 to eight, as the Grade 10 selection portal officially opened.
About 1.2 million learners are expected to take part in the five-day exercise after the selection portal opened Monday, to facilitate selection of their preferred career pathways, subject combinations and senior schools.
The portal, available through the Ministry of Education's Kenya Education Management Information System (KEMIS) platform, will remain open until Friday, September 11 2026, with learners required to select a minimum of one and a maximum of two subject combinations.
The Grade 9 learners will choose from subject combinations under three pathways namely STEM, Social Sciences, and Arts and Sports Science.
STEM combinations include subjects such as mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, computer studies and agriculture, while social sciences combinations include business studies, geography, history and citizenship, and other humanities subjects.
For Arts and Sports Science, there are two main tracks, namely Arts and Sports and Recreation. Depending on the selected track, subject combinations include fine arts with music and dance and Sports and Recreation, fine arts with biology, theatre and film, computer studies with fine arts and music and dance as well as Business Studies with music and dance, and theatre and film.
They will also be required to list eight preferred senior schools, marking a significant departure from last year's inaugural selection exercise under the Competency-Based Education (CBE).
In the previous exercise, learners were required to select 12 schools, with four choices allocated to each of the three pathways, namely: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), Social Sciences and Arts and Sports Science.
This year, the eight choices will comprise three C1 schools, two C2 schools and two C3 schools and one C4 school, according to the Directorate of Secondary Education (DSE).
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba during the national meeting with principals of public TVET institutions at the Kenya School of TVET in Gigiri, Nairobi, on July 6, 2026.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
“The system will open at midnight on Sunday, with selection running from Monday, 7th September to Friday, 11th September 2026,” the DSE said in a statement following a meeting with field officers.
The reduction in school choices comes as the Ministry of Education races to complete preparations for the transition of the second cohort of learners under the CBE system to senior school.
The cohort comprises approximately 1,196,000 learners, against an estimated 1.6 million declared places available in senior schools.
The ministry's move gives learners and parents a shorter list to work with but also makes each choice more consequential, particularly for those targeting highly competitive C1 schools (formerly national schools).
The selection exercise comes after months of uncertainty over when learners would select their senior schools.
The ministry had initially scheduled the exercise to start on August 24 2026 and run for three weeks, nearly three months later than the timetable used for the first CBE cohort. Last year's selection exercise began on June 8 and ran until June 30.
The delay had raised concerns among parents and teachers that the selection and subsequent placement process could be squeezed by the school calendar.
In the course of the five days, the Grade 9 learners will make their choices for public senior schools. The selection will initially cover public senior schools, while private schools will participate during the revision stage.
Heads of Institutions (HoI) have been directed to print each learner’s profile after the selection is completed, with parents required to sign the profiles to confirm the choices made. The signed documents will then be retained in the schools’ files.
The learners will choose from three broad pathways and then select subject combinations aligned with their interests and intended careers.
At senior school, learners will take seven subjects, with mathematics, English, Kiswahili and Community Service Learning being compulsory. The remaining subjects will be determined by the learner's chosen pathway and subject combination.
The exercise is therefore a crucial step in the implementation of the CBE curriculum, which seeks to move away from the 8-4-4 system in which learners were largely funnelled into predetermined academic streams.
Placement into Grade 10 will take place after the release of the Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) results, usually in December, ahead of learners transiting to Grade 10 in January the following year.
The placement system will consider learners' preferences, career interests and academic performance, including cumulative assessment scores from Grades 6, 7 and 9 as well as the KJSEA.
The new eight-school formula also changes how learners spread their choices across senior-school categories.
The DSE notes the changes were discussed with Sub-County Quality Assurance and Standards Officers (SCQASOs) and Sub-County Directors of Education (SCDE) ahead of the opening of the system.
The officials have been tasked with supporting schools and learners through the selection process. Junior school heads will also be expected to guide learners and parents to ensure that the choices made are aligned with available subject combinations and the learner's career interests.
