In Competency-Based Education (CBE), selection of Career Pathway happens at the end of Junior School in Grade 9. This precedes admission into Senior School in Grade 10. As a career educator in several schools, I thought about abutting my 11th treatise on CBE by supporting certain stance of the architects of CBE. Grade 9 learners choosing Career Pathways and selecting Learning Areas (Subjects). Somewhat, people here and there argued that Grade 9 learners are still young to arrive at a judicious decision on this important vocational matter. But this is how I see it. A deeper understanding of the Career Choices Developmental Pattern can make us nod to the notion, it is indeed right for Grade 9 learners to choose Career Pathways and select Learning Areas while in Grade 9; categorised in line with Career Pathways.
Maybe, before we delve deep into selection, it is important to understand that pioneers of CBE (learners in Grade 9 in 2025) will transit from Junior School to Senior Schools in 2026. In the new education dispensation, the current secondary schools offering 8-4-4 System of Education will evolve to Senior Schools as they plug-in the first CBE cohort. At that level of learning, there will be 3 Career Pathways: Social Sciences, Arts and Sports Science and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
Taking the STEM Pathway as an excellent example, there are three Tracks, which include: Pure Sciences, Applied Sciences, and Technical Studies. Learning Areas in the Pure Sciences Track include: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Mathematics. Learning Areas in Applied Sciences Track include: Computer Science, Home Science, and Agriculture. Then, Learning Areas in Technical Studies Track include: Aviation, Building Construction, Electricity, Metal Work, Power Mechanics, Woodwork, Media Technology, and Marine and Fisheries Technology.
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Dear reader, I may not belabour you with the selection criteria in this piece. It will be the nub of a subsequent treatise. I just thought of dissuading the public that in relation to the Career Developmental Pattern, learners in Grade 9 are not too young to sit and choose Career Pathways or select Learning Areas.
Comparatively, it is akin to what happens to students under the 8-4-4 System of Education when they are in Form 2. It is at that stage where age permits them to select subjects, which feature in Groups 1 to 5. Group 1 has 3 Compulsory Subjects. Group 2 has the 3 Sciences. Group 3 has 5 Humanities. Group 4 has 11 Technical subjects. Then, Group 5 has 5 Humanities and Arts. Subjects students decide to select in Form 2 influences career choices at tertiary level of education. For instance, a student who wishes to pursue Engineering as a course after high school, must include Physics in the selection.
One wonders, why did I decide to compare 8-4-4 with CBE on this important matter that raised a heated debate among education stakeholders. Ideally, Form 2 students in the 8-4-4 System are around 15 years of age. Grade 9 learners in CBC are around 14 years. This is a difference of one year, which may not be a big issue. More so, when we strive to understand the Career Developmental Pattern I have decided to drag into this deep discourse.
Then, there is a certain page-turner I pored over in the recent past. Permit me to drag it into this career discourse. It is titled Your Career Questions Answered. In that treasure-trove, Sam Muriuki introduces bibliophiles like the weaver of these words to the Career Choices Developmental Pattern. Ideally, the 3 stages attributed to Ginsberg (1951), include: Fantasy, tentative and realistic.
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Actually, learners go through the fantasy phase when they are between ages 6 to 12. This is the phase for children stretching to pre-teen stage. At this age, learners hardly attach any dedication to career choices. With scant knowledge, they only dream of belonging to some glamour-tinged professional group. They pick such ideas as they observe and imitate what is happening close to them; programmes they watch on different media platforms; and tales they are regaled with.
Then, tentative phase coincides with the adolescent stage. It is from 12 to 17 years. This is a more serious stage where teens fit. At this stage, they begin to visualise and internalise requirements and rewards of careers. As the clock of age ticks, they begin to align to career paths. In Cashflow Quadrant, Robert T. Kiyosaki profusely quotes the Vietnamese monk Thich Nath Hanh, advising young people: Knowing the right path in life should be the goal, the highest ideal. No wonder, teens are right to begin associating themselves with reasonable professions. They listen, explore and pose oodles of quality questions. Sometimes, this is also a stage for confusion, where some teens just welter like water. Some are totally unaware of what they want to be. No wonder, great schools ensure that they get good guidance and advice. In turn, they get assisted. More so, when they understand: Life is a journey. Life is not a destination. Life is a journey of self-discovery and recovery.
The final phase is realistic. It is the stage learners are young adults. It is age 18 onwards. At this stage, they make career choices based on their situation, ability and preference. Possibly, at this stage, career choices begin becoming specific. Now, I take you back to the contentious issue. On whether Grade 9 learners in CBE are ripe to make informed choices of Career Pathways and selection of Learning Areas. We can see, in the Career Choices Developmental Pattern, Grade 9 learners are in the tentative phase. For they have just become adolescents. They are no longer pre-teens, but teens. With good guidance and advice, they can pick Learning Areas in various Tracks of the 3 Career Pathways offered in CBE.
By Victor Ochieng’
The writer is an educator – academic and career consultant; rolling out talks and training services in schools. vochieng.90@gmail.com. 0704420232
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