The debacle over placement and admission of Grade 10 learners has exposed the conceptual and structural challenges afflicting the Competency-Based Education (previously Competency-Based Curriculum) introduced in 2017 to replace 8-4-4 that had consistently faced serious obstacles.
At the end of the week on Friday January 16, most of the 1,130,459 students had reported to schools where they had been placed, raising serious questions about the viability of the government’s pursuit of a 100-per cent transition and long desired goal that no learner should be left behind.
On the surface, parents have complained about high learning costs consisting of heavy fees and myriads of unregulated expenditures and levies as well as long distances to schools that translate to high transport costs. The other is a mismatch between pathways selected for the learners and their availability in the respective schools where they have been placed.
But these challenges obscure far deeper gaps in the Competency-Based Education (CBE) that the current administration continues to sweep under the carpet. What is unfolding today represents cumulative years of errors in CBE implementation and which, unless addressed openly and urgently, will derail the country’s education system in its entirety.
Understanding the challenges requires a conceptual, historical, economic and political interrogation. Kenya Vision 2030 launched in 2008 by President Mwai Kibaki laid the foundation for education reform, driving a shift from content memorisation curriculum to practical skills embedded in values and application.
Irrelevant learning content
Central to this reform was the emphasis on learner-centred learning approaches that leverage technology to prepare learners for the 21st Century realities. The emphasis on competencies and practical skills provided the basis for a conceptual and structural shift from the 8-4-4 to the current CBE.
Subsequent reviews of the 8-4-4 by the then Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) — now Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) — in 2009/2010 exposed serious weaknesses, including subject overload, low learning achievements, irrelevant learning content, and heavy examination orientation.
Consequently, the reviews recommended far-reaching reforms to introduce, among others, flexible, learner-centred and practical oriented curriculum alongside revamping technical and vocational to create alternative pathways for those who desired skills-oriented learning.
Grade 10 learners with their parents during admission at Kapsabet Boys High School in Nandi County on January 12, 2026.
Photo credit: Jared Nyataya | Nation Media Group
Thus, whereas the conceptual foundation was sound, implementation has proved problematic. In the first place, it took nearly seven years before the country could initiate any meaningful transition and even then, preparations including financial, teaching and learning infrastructure as well as capacity building for teachers and other curriculum implementers were grossly inadequate. Since then, curriculum implementation has hurtled from one crisis to another.
Political interference and policy inconsistencies have particularly undermined effective implementation of the curriculum. In August 2019 at a national education conference in Nairobi, retired President Uhuru Kenyatta declared that Junior School – grades seven, eight and nine – would be domiciled in secondary school for the reason that the subjects being taught at the level required facilities such as labs and workshop, as well as qualified teachers, who were only available in high schools. In line with that, the government embarked on preparing secondary schools and expanding facilities where there did not exist in readiness for the junior school rollout.
However, in 2022, upon ascending to power, President William Ruto reversed that policy decision and decreed that junior school be domiciled in primary schools, yet these institutions did not have the requisite teaching and learning facilities as well teachers to handle the courses on offer at that level. This created a major structural and technical flaw that has proved extremely difficult to rectify.
A stop-gap measure introduced by the government of employing intern-teachers for junior schools has fostered a professional crisis for the past three years. Here are fresh graduates, without proper grounding in teaching at junior level, insufficient in numbers, handling several subjects, poorly paid and placed under primary school head teachers, yet are expected to perform magic.
The result is a scenario where learners go through junior school without acquiring requisite knowledge and mastering essential skills, only to be transitioned to secondary schools that are ill-prepared to handle them.
Parents outside School Outfitters in Kisumu on January 12, 2026.
Photo credit: Alex Odhiambo | Nation Media Group
Similarly, the philosophy behind CBE was to de-emphasise exams and privilege skills acquisition. But the reality is now different. When the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) released the Kenya Junior Secondary Education Assessment (KJSEA) results last month, it was all about scores with all the trappings of performance metrics.
In principle, the grading was formulated along four bands, namely, exceeding expectation, meeting expectation, approaching expectation and below expectation, however, in practice, these were converted into marks, with the highest being 72 obtainable across eight learning areas. The grades consist of 20 per cent from the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA), 20 per cent from the school-based assessment in Grade 7 and 8, and 60 per cent summative evaluation at Grade 9 (KJSEA).
While this looks good on paper, what has transpired is that the final grading has once again turned the exams into a rat race where schools compete for the highest scores and those at the tail end consigned to suffer the enduring ignominy of failure.
For placement to senior schools, the institutions have been reclassified into four bands, vide, C1 (former national schools), C2 (former extra-county schools), C3 (former county schools) and C4 (former sub-county schools). Despite the new nomenclature, the C1 and C2 schools continue to carry the prestige of national and extra-provincial schools, which explains why parents vigorously compete to secure admission for their children into these institutions. In itself, admissions have fostered layers of unethical practices ranging from bribery to ethnic balkanisation, all undermining the noble goal of using education to foster national unity and instil values of honesty and integrity.
Parents and children on arrival at Shimo la Tewa High School, Mombasa, for Grade 10 admission.
Photo credit: Kevin Odit | Nation Media Group
Another persistent challenge is funding, which is core to effective implementation of the new education programme. Education ministry continues to receive the highest budgetary allocation every year, yet state capitation to schools remains inadequate and unpredictable. And while the government insists on regulating fees, the reality is that schools charge figures far exceeding the stipulated guidelines.
Matters are worse for the CBC cohort entering senior school since the government has not given any guidance on the fees they should pay yet what is required for their programmes differ quite significantly from those of the 8-4-4 system.
Put together, what is playing out in CBC implementation is deceptive and it is just but a matter of time before the whole edifice crumbles. This is the reason for a rethink; the country needs a candid debate on the current and future practice of education if we are to prepare our children to operate and thrive in the 21st Century.
The starting point is to reevaluate the structural placement of grades - early years, primary, junior, and senior school - while simultaneously reassessing the funding formula, addressing gaps in teaching and learning resources, and tackling the shortage and limited preparedness of teachers.
