As Kenya prepares for the Country’s first-ever transition of Junior Secondary learners into Senior School, the Ministry of Education, (MoE) has launched an elaborate, nationwide placement plan designed to ensure that every Senior Secondary School—whether in a remote village or an urban centre—admits students in January 2026.
The plan, which targets more than 1.1 million Grade 9 learners, comes at a time when the country has over 2.4 million available senior school places, raising concerns that some institutions could be left with empty classes if placement is not carefully managed. The Ministry is determined to avoid that outcome.
At the heart of the strategy is a fully centralized digital platform that will manage the entire selection and placement process. Through the Grade 10 Pathway and Senior School Selection portal, integrated with KEMIS, the Ministry is able to track learner choices, match students with pathways, and distribute them across the country according to available capacity.
For the first time, all senior school admissions will be determined through one national engine—ensuring that no school can “hoard” or “miss out” on learners.
The education officials say this is the only way to guarantee equity and to build confidence in the new CBC design of specialised pathways.
One of the strongest tools the ministry is using is a structured school-choice model that deliberately spreads learner selections across counties. Every learner must include both boarding and day schools, including institutions outside their home region. This prevents the traditional clustering of applicants in a few high-demand schools and automatically gives every county a fair share of prospective students.
As a result, even schools in sparsely populated or previously overlooked areas will appear on learners’ lists—ensuring they receive a steady flow of applicants during the placement.
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Behind the scenes, a sophisticated placement engine weighs each learner’s academic performance, psychometric indicators, pathway preferences, and available facilities in the schools that offer those pathways. This holistic approach allows the Ministry to place students not only fairly, but intelligently—ensuring a student interested in engineering lands in a school fully equipped for STEM, while a passionate artist can access institutions specialising in creative and performing arts.
The officials argue that this is the biggest shift from the old system, which relied heavily on exam scores and rarely considered learner interests or aptitude.
To support the transition, the government has been racing against time to strengthen the infrastructure of Senior Schools across the country. Laboratories, ICT rooms, workshops and specialised learning spaces have been upgraded or constructed under initiatives such as the Secondary Education Equity and Quality Improvement Programme (SEEQIP). These improvements are expected to support the rollout of the three pathways and to increase the number of schools that can accommodate students in STEM—one of the most demanding areas in the curriculum.
Recognising that some families may wish to request changes after placement, the Ministry has introduced a one-time post-placement adjustment period. However, all changes will be centrally approved to prevent schools from recruiting learners informally or creating disparities. This measure is expected to fill any gaps created by transfers and guarantee that every school begins the year with learners in Grade 10.
The transition calendar is already set, with KJSEA results expected by December 11 and placement results released before Christmas. Schools will open their doors to Senior Secondary learners on January 12, signaling the official launch of a new phase of learning under the Competency-Based Curriculum.
For the Ministry, this historic transition will serve as a test of Kenya’s ability to manage one of the most ambitious education reforms in decades. For schools across the country—especially those outside major towns—the new placement architecture could finally deliver a more balanced distribution of learners and a fairer start as they embrace the CBC’s diverse pathways.
By Kimwele Mutuku
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