A man re-writes a school’s signpost in Elburgon town, Nakuru County, on May 31, 2025. Most secondary school signposts have changed ahead of Grade 9 learners’ transition to senior schools in 2026.
Anxiety and hope hang over the 1.13 million candidates who sat the inaugural Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) as the Ministry of Education releases the first-ever placement into senior school under the competency-based education today.
Placement details will be accessible through SMS and the ministry’s portal (https://placement.education.go.ke), showing where the pioneer Grade Nine candidates will spend their next three years.
Unlike in the past when placement to secondary school only focused on Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination performance and the category of a school, pathways will have a major influence and cluster of schools.
The admission letter will, therefore, indicate the pathway and school the learner will be placed.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba told the Daily Nation that the ministry has piloted the process to gauge its effectiveness and fairness.
“Being the first placement of such kind, we couldn’t go into it blindly,” Mr Ogamba said.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos at the media briefing during the release of the 2025 Kenya Junior Schools Education Assessment results at Mitihani House.
He added that the distribution of learners in the pathways and schools will follow the KJSEA results, which showed the majority qualified for placement.
Some candidates qualified for all the pathways, meaning other factors like their choices and interests will be considered, the minister said.
STEM pathway
About 59 per cent of the KJSEA candidates qualified for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) pathway while the other two had about 48 per cent qualifying.
The CS said learners who will not be satisfied with the schools or pathways they have been placed in will have two weeks to revise their choices.
The first thing learners must understand is that their placement in a pathway is determined by the analysis at the bottom of their results slips.
To arrive at the calculation, the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) used the standard scores (z-scores) of the subjects related to a pathway to assess a learner’s suitability for it.
To qualify for STEM, for instance, learners will require a minimum score of 20 while social sciences and sports and arts pathways will require a minimum of 25.
The minister added that a team has been set up to address the challenges arising from the placement.
Admissions start
The Deputy Headteacher of Sparki Primary School, Bakari Ali (sitting) with Grade 9 parents who had come to seek KEMIS Registration numbers of their children to apply for scholarships on December 17, 2025 ahead of senior school placement exercise.
Some private senior schools have started admissions for Grade 10. The principal of Moi Educational Centre, Nairobi – Stephen Wekesa – told the Daily Nation that the institution conducted interviews for Grade 10 even before the KJSEA.
“Now that results are out, we ask the applicants to come with their slips. We are doing psychometric tests,” Mr Wekesa said.
“It is not about the grades but the learners’ interests. We’re talking to the students and guiding them.”
Mr Wekesa said it is clear that for many learners, the performance does not have much implication on their choice of pathways.
“The children are categorical on what they want despite the KJSEA results. You may find a child who has done well in STEM subjects but wants to pursue social sciences in senior school,” the principal said.
The final KJSEA score is an aggregate of 20 per cent from the Grade Six Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA), 20 per cent from school-based assessments (SBA) in Grades Seven and Eight and 60 per cent from the summative evaluation at Grade Nine.
“Learners will be placed in senior school based on performance and selected pathways. The ministry clustered schools based on the pathways they will offer,” the Cabinet Secretary said.
“This formed the basis of the selection of schools that children and their parents undertook.”
According to the ministry, more than 600,000 learners chose the STEM pathway, 437,000 prefer social sciences while 124,000 opted for arts and sports.
There are 9,540 public senior schools with a capacity of 2.2 million learners, making it easy to accommodate the 1.13 million KJSEA candidates.
A total of 929,262 students exited high school after completing their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations late last month.
Grade 10 learners are expected to report to senior school from January 12, 2026.
“Senior schools will, therefore, have an extra classrooms left by the fact that there are only three classes at this level. These classrooms will provide extra space that will address the challenge of crowding. We have more than enough capacity to accommodate the children,” Mr Ogamba said.
The Grade Nine learners selected 12 schools in May this year.
“We have adopted the County Revenue Allocation formula to distribute learners fairly in senior schools,” said Basic Education PS Julius Bitok said.
Additional reporting by David Muchunguh
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