- The Ministry of Education (MoE) has announced a five-day Grade 9 school selection exercise beginning Monday, September 7.
- Schools have been directed to guide learners on subject combinations, school choices and career pathways while safeguarding login credentials.
- The Ministry has also warned that no learner or parent should be charged any fee for participating in the selection process.
The Ministry of Education (MoE) has announced that the Grade 9 school selection system will open at midnight on Sunday, September 6, 2026, with the selection exercise scheduled to run from Monday, September 7, to Friday, September 11.
The timelines were communicated during an online meeting involving Regional Directors of Education (RDEs), County Directors of Education (CDEs) and Sub-County Directors of Education (SCDEs) with officials from the Ministry of Education headquarters on Saturday.
According to the guidelines issued during the meeting, login credentials for the selection system will be sent to SCDEs, who will subsequently provide them to individual schools.
The Ministry cautioned schools to handle the credentials with the highest level of confidentiality in line with data protection requirements.
The public will, however, be able to search for schools and available subject combinations through the public portal without requiring school login credentials.
Learners to select subject combinations and schools
Junior schools will also be allowed to update learners’ gender details where errors are identified, in coordination with the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC).
Schools have further been directed to ensure that where a learner has been assigned more than one assessment number, the active assessment number is used during the selection process.
Under the selection guidelines, each learner will be required to select a minimum of one and a maximum of two sets of subject combinations.
Learners will also be required to select eight schools.
Where the first set of subject combinations successfully secures a learner in all the eight selected schools, there will be no need to undertake selection for the second set.
The Ministry has urged schools to provide proper career guidance to learners, particularly regarding subject combinations and future career choices.
It clarified that failure to select Aviation as a subject combination does not necessarily mean that a learner will be unable to pursue aviation as a career in future.
The broader Senior School placement framework is built around learner pathways, subject combinations and school choices, with the Ministry and KNEC having previously issued guidance linking Grade 9 selection to transition into Senior School.
Schools directed to keep signed learner profiles
Heads of Institutions (HOIs) have been directed to print learners’ profiles after the selection exercise.
The profiles should be signed by parents or guardians and retained in the respective school files for record-keeping.
Schools have also been instructed to follow up on learners who are absent during the selection period to ensure they are not left out of the exercise.
In cases where a learner has died, the HOI is required to formally notify the SCDE in writing.
To facilitate faster and more efficient selection and filtering, schools have been advised to use the pathways checker provided for the exercise.
The Ministry has also issued a firm directive that no learner or parent should be charged any levy or fee for the Grade 9 school selection process.
The exercise is expected to pave the way for learners transitioning from junior school to Senior School under the Competency-Based Education framework, with schools expected to guide learners and parents throughout the process.
The selection process comes as KNEC continues to administer the 2026 Grade 9 assessment cycle, including KJSEA-related activities ahead of transition to Senior School.
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Schools are therefore expected to ensure that learners make informed choices while also verifying their details and maintaining accurate records throughout the selection period.
By Jeff Kirui
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