Barely four months after Kenya launched senior school under the Competency-Based Education (CBE) system, a growing wave of confusion among Grade 10 learners is exposing significant weaknesses in one of the country’s most ambitious education reforms.
Across the country, schools are reporting increasing numbers of learners seeking to abandon the pathways they selected at the beginning of the year. Others are requesting transfers to different schools or changes in subject combinations after discovering that their choices do not align with their abilities, interests, or career aspirations.
What was envisioned as a learner-centred system designed to nurture talents and competencies is now facing a critical test as implementation challenges emerge across schools, households, and education institutions.
The promise of CBE meets reality
The transition to senior school marked a major milestone in Kenya’s education reform agenda.
Under CBE, learners entering Grade 10 are expected to specialize in one of three pathways: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Social Sciences, or Arts and Sports Science.
The new structure was designed to replace the rigid one-size-fits-all model associated with the 8-4-4 system and instead allow learners to pursue areas aligned with their strengths and career ambitions.
When the first cohort joined senior school in January 2026, the government projected confidence in the rollout. Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba reported that over 85 per cent of learners had successfully transitioned to Grade 10 despite logistical challenges.
However, only months later, cracks have begun to emerge.
Learners caught between passion and pressure
Education researchers argue that many learners entered pathways based not on informed choices but on external influence.
Maurice Mutisya, Research Lead at Zizi Afrique Foundation, says the pathway selection process has revealed a significant disconnect between policy intentions and actual learner experiences.
According to Mutisya, many students selected pathways due to parental pressure, peer influence, or societal perceptions surrounding prestigious careers.
“Some learners are choosing pathways because their friends are taking them, especially in areas like STEM. Others are influenced by what parents want them to become rather than what suits them,” he observed.
As a result, many learners are now finding themselves trapped in pathways they neither enjoy nor excel in.
Education stakeholders say the rush toward STEM reflects long-standing societal attitudes that continue to equate success with professions such as medicine, engineering, and technology.
Consequently, pathways such as Arts and Sports Science remain less popular despite CBE’s emphasis on talent development and diverse career opportunities.
Career guidance gap
Perhaps the biggest weakness exposed by the current situation is the lack of comprehensive career guidance structures.
CBE was designed around the idea that learners would gradually identify their talents and interests throughout primary and junior secondary education before making pathway decisions.
Yet evidence suggests many schools lacked sufficient career counselling services, psychometric assessment tools, and trained personnel to support informed choices.
Mutisya argues that psychometric testing—which assesses aptitude, personality, and career suitability—remains largely absent in most schools.
“There are psychometric tools that can help assess a learner’s interests, abilities and potential, but these are not being widely used in our schools,” he noted.
Without such systems, pathway selection has often depended on assumptions, family influence, or examination performance rather than a comprehensive understanding of learner potential.
The result has been confusion, dissatisfaction, and growing requests for pathway changes.
Infrastructure and staffing concerns
Beyond career guidance, experts say school preparedness remains a major concern.
Former Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion has warned that many schools lack the facilities, specialized equipment, and trained teachers required to effectively deliver pathway-based learning.
According to Sossion, the Arts and Sports Science pathway faces particular challenges because many institutions do not have adequate infrastructure to support practical learning.
The disparities between schools are increasingly becoming evident.
National schools and well-funded institutions have generally managed to establish laboratories, workshops, digital learning facilities, and specialized teaching departments. However, many county and sub-county schools continue to struggle with shortages of laboratories, technical equipment, learning materials, and qualified staff.
This raises concerns that pathway choices may ultimately be determined by school capacity rather than learner interests.
A student passionate about music, theatre, sports science, or visual arts may have limited options if their school lacks the facilities to support those interests.
Public concerns continue to grow
The confusion surrounding CBE is also reflected in public discourse.
Parents have increasingly voiced concerns about pathway placement, school preparedness, and the overall direction of education reform.
Recent discussions among Kenyan parents, teachers, and education stakeholders have highlighted frustrations over inadequate career guidance, shortages of teachers, and concerns that CBE implementation has outpaced available resources.
Others have defended the philosophy behind the curriculum but questioned the level of preparedness before rollout.
Additional concerns have emerged around school funding.
Parents report increasing costs associated with learning materials, stationery, and school requirements, raising fears that education inequalities may widen if implementation challenges persist.
Policy ambition versus implementation reality
To many education analysts, the current difficulties do not necessarily indicate that CBE is fundamentally flawed.
Rather, they reveal the challenges of implementing large-scale education reforms in a system already grappling with funding gaps, teacher shortages, infrastructure deficits, and entrenched cultural attitudes.
The Ministry of Education had previously assured the public that preparations for the Grade 10 transition were complete and that schools were ready to absorb learners into pathway-based education.
Yet the experiences of the first senior school cohort suggest that policy readiness did not always translate into operational readiness.
Former Chief Justice David Maraga recently criticized the rollout, arguing that many schools were inadequately prepared and that official reports often fail to reflect realities on the ground.
He warned that poor implementation risks locking out vulnerable learners and undermining confidence in the system.
What needs to change
Education experts argue that urgent interventions are needed to stabilize the senior school transition.
Among the recommendations being proposed are:
- Strengthening career guidance programmes in all junior and senior schools.
- Introducing psychometric assessments before pathway selection.
- Expanding teacher training for specialized pathways.
- Increasing investment in infrastructure and learning resources.
- Enhancing parental sensitization on CBE pathways and career opportunities.
- Improving communication between policymakers, schools, parents, and learners.
Stakeholders emphasize that pathway changes should not be viewed as failures but as indicators that learners require more support in making informed educational decisions.
A critical test for CBE
In conclusion, Grade 10 pathway confusion has become the first major stress test for Kenya’s Competency-Based Education system.
While the vision behind CBE remains ambitious and globally relevant, the experiences of the first senior school cohort reveal significant gaps in implementation.
Career guidance shortcomings, parental pressure, school inequalities, inadequate infrastructure, and public confusion have combined to create uncertainty among learners at a critical stage of their education.
The emerging challenge is not simply about subject combinations or pathway transfers. It is about whether Kenya can successfully build an education system that genuinely places learners at the centre of decision-making.
As thousands of students reconsider the choices they made only months ago, one lesson is becoming increasingly clear: educational reform cannot succeed through policy alone.
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It requires preparation, resources, public understanding, and sustained support for the learners whose futures depend on it.
The analysis incorporates stakeholder perspectives from education researchers, government officials, union leaders, and public discussions surrounding the rollout of senior school under CBE.
By Onwonga Yabesh
Yabesh is History Analyst
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