The education sector is experiencing a surge in new learning institutions and a sharp increase in student enrollments across all levels.
According to the 2025 economic Survey by the Kenya national Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the number of basic learning institutions rose by 38.8 per cent, jumping from 93.281 in 2023 to 129.463 in 2024.
A key driver of this growth being the integration of junior secondary schools into basic education system. The new institution alone made up 24.7 per cent 0f the total reshaping the country’s foundational learning infrastructure.
“The massive jump in institutions reflects ongoing efforts to fully implement the Competency-Based Curriculum,” KNBS noted in their report.
They went ahead by noting that other sectors that also experienced steady growth was Pre-primary schools which increased by 1.8 per cent to 47,760, while primary schools grew by 9.6 per cent to 38,997.
Secondary schools saw only a marginal rise of three institutions, from 10,752 to 10,755.
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The number of children in pre-primary education inched up to 2.91 million. With boys’ enrollment growing faster (1.5 per cent) than girls’ (0.5 per cent). The number of learners in ECDE teacher training slightly declined by 0.1 per cent to 2.65 million.
Following the phase-out of Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams, and replaced by the CBC’s Kenya Primary School education Assessment (KPSEA), 1.31 million Grade 6 pupils registered in 2024- a 2.5 per cent increase from the previous year.
According to the report, candidates who actually sat for the papers grew by 5.5 per cent, by only three subjects saw more than 10 per cent of learns exceeding expectations.
This is a worrying trend with education experts noting that learners are passed to the next level without considering of the quality of education earned.
“The performance gaps and uneven growth in the technical education underscore the need for targeted policy support,” said Henry Embeywa, one of the researcher.
By Brian Ndigo
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