Grade 9 learners will transition to Senior School after
sitting KJSEA in November.
The end of this year will mark the transition of Grade 9
learners into Senior School comprising Grades 10 thru to 12, which will mark
the final phase of basic education under the Competency-Based Curriculum.
Grade 9 is the pioneer cohort of the CBC system introduced
in January 2017 when the government initiated the phased changeover from the
now 40-year-old 8-4-4 curriculum.
To transition to Senior School, the nine graders will in
November write the Kenya Junior Secondary Education Assessment (KJSEA), marking
the first time a national exam will be held at the Junior School level under
the CBC.
KJSEA is a national summative assessment that will be
administered by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC).
It will account for 60 per cent of the final mark while
school-based assessment will account for 40 per cent.
After KJSEA, learners will be placed in various schools
based on their career paths.
While Junior schools (Grade 7-9) were domiciled in parent
primary schools, Senior schools will be a combination of the current four tiers
of schools.
The four categories are national schools, extra county
schools, county schools and sub-county schools.
However, under CBC, categorization of schools will cease to
exist, and learners will be placed in Senior School based on three career
pathways.
These are Arts and Sports Science; Science, Technology and
Mathematics (STEM), and Social Science.
Each of the three career pathways have what will be known as
tracks (subject combination, which under CBC are known as learning areas).
Arts and Sports Science has three tracks - Performing Arts,
Sports and Visual Arts.
STEM has four tracks - Pure Science, Applied Science,
Technology and Engineering and Career Technology Studies (CTS).
Social Science has two tracks - Humanities and Business
Studies and Language and Literature.
Your child will be placed in Senior School based on how the
outcome of the KJSEA aligns with the requirements of the three pathways (Arts
and Sports Science; Science, Technology and Mathematics (STEM), and Social
Science).
Schools will accommodate Grade 9 graduates based on their staffing and infrastructural capacity.
For instance, the current national schools have the best
facilities in the country and may accommodate learners across all three
pathways.
However, some extra county schools may be limited by
infrastructural capacity to accommodate only allow two career pathways.
Besides the school-based formative assessment and the
summative KJSEA determining which career pathway a child will pursue, KNEC
will dispatch questionnaires in which learners will state their interests and
personality to help identify their strength.
This will help education officials pinpoint learners with
special talents in areas like games or sciences to ensure they are placed in
schools with the capacity to support their career choices sufficiently.
Placement
All the above factors notwithstanding, three other factors
will determine what school your child will be placed into.
Under CBC, focus is on placing learners in schools closest
to their homes, meaning students will generally attend a nearby schools for
their Senior education as is with Junior education where Grade 7-9 were
integrated into existing primary schools.
It therefore goes to mean that placement of learners in
Senior School will partly be influenced by availability of slots, equality and
inclusivity.
Regions that have more schools will be at an advantage as
this will mean more slots will be at their disposal.
Learners will also be placed in any school (guided by career
pathway) regardless of gender, meaning existence of purely boys' schools or
girls' schools will cease.
Regional balance and geographical location will also play a role in determining how learners will be placed in Senior School.
This aspect will save learners the need to travel miles away
from home to attend a particular school as is currently the case under 8-4-4.