Kenya’s education transition, plainly

How the new system works

8-4-4 is retiring and Competency Based Education is arriving. Here is what actually changes, for parents first and in the official words second — updated 28 August 2026 as the plans firm up.

Is KCSE ending?

It is being phased out as Competency Based Education arrives. The 2026 exam runs this November, and a 2027 sitting is planned. If your child is in Form 3 or Form 4 now, KCSE is still their exam and nothing about it has changed: same papers, same marking, same university pathway.

What replaces it?

Three things, at three points in school life. At the end of Grade 9, learners sit KJSEA — the Kenya Junior School Education Assessment — which is reported in performance bands, not ranks. Through Grades 10 to 12, school-based assessments count toward the final result each year under the announced plan (15% in Grade 10, 15% in Grade 11, with the Grade 12 national examination carrying 70%). The first Grade 12 national examination under the new system is expected in 2028.

What are pathways?

At senior school (Grade 10), every learner chooses one of three pathways — STEM, Social Sciences, or Arts & Sports Science — which divide further into seven tracks. Each learner takes seven examinable subjects: four everyone takes (English, Kiswahili or Kenyan Sign Language, mathematics, and Community Service Learning) plus three from their pathway. Familiar subjects continue inside them: chemistry, biology, physics and mathematics live in STEM, and mathematics comes in two forms, Core for STEM and Essential for the others. About half of the first cohort chose STEM. No pathway is a lesser one — they lead to different places, not to better and worse.

How is a KJSEA result actually worked out?

From marks, the same as before — the band is what the marks are turned into, not a replacement for them. The papers print the allocation on every part (“State eight effects of climate change. (8 marks)”), the marks become a percentage, and the percentage places the learner on an eight-point scale that carries the band name. This matters if you have been told the new system does not use marks: it does, all the way down.

Where do the band boundaries sit?

On the published scale, Exceeding Expectation is 75% and above, Meeting Expectation is 41–74%, Approaching Expectation is 21–40%, and Below Expectation is 20% and under. Worth knowing because “meeting expectation” starts lower than most people assume — a learner on 45% is meeting the standard, not falling short of it.

How much of the final result comes from school?

A large share, and it is spread over years rather than one morning. For KJSEA at the end of Grade 9, the announced weighting is 20% from Grade 7 and 8 school-based assessment, 20% from the Grade 6 assessment, and 60% from the national paper. For senior school, it is 15% from Grade 10, 15% from Grade 11, and 70% from the Grade 12 national examination. So the work of ordinary terms counts in a way it did not under 8-4-4.

What are performance bands?

Instead of ranks and raw marks, the new assessments report levels: Exceeds Expectation, Meets Expectation, Approaches Expectation, Below Expectation. They describe what a learner can do, and they are exactly what Fikira's practice is built to move — a band is a level to climb, not a score to fear.

What does this mean for revision?

For KCSE candidates: nothing changes — past-paper practice and scheme-faithful marking remain the whole game, and Fikira is built for it. For Grade 9 and 10 learners: the content of the new curriculum overlaps heavily with what came before, so strong subject practice still counts — what changes is how it is assessed.

Details still being finalised nationally (final examination dates and weightings) are described here as announced plans. Where school letters use terms like learning areas, strands, CSL or SBA — those are the official names for subjects, topics, community service learning and school-based assessment.