Over half of all senior secondary schools in the country did not attract a single selection from Grade 9 students who are looking to join Grade 10 in January 2026. This has been revealed by Basic Education Principal Secretary Julius Bitok.
According to Bitok, there were 9,750 schools that were listed for selection. About 5,000 of them did not receive even a single selection from the students.
“We have 9,750 secondary schools around the country. And from the selection results, we have seen clearly that more than 5,000 schools didn’t get any learner selection. This is because some learners do not prefer them,” he said. The selection process took place from June 9 to July 15, 2025.
According to the PS, the schools may have failed to attract even a single student due to their infrastructure, performance history, location, and perceived prestige could have influenced learner and parent choices.
It now remains to be seen how the Ministry of Education will balance out admissions to ensure the schools which were not selected do not remain empty.
The Grade 9 students who took part in the selection are the first batch to have undertaken the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) and are seen as the pioneers of the system in all its stages.
The pathways that were up for selection included social sciences, arts and sports, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Mathematics, English, Kiswahili remained compulsory just as they were in the old 8-4-4 curriculum. However, the ministry added community service into the docket of compulsory subjects.
READ MORE: List of all Grade 10 subject combinations at Mang’u High School
For each subject combination selected, four schools were to be chosen in four clusters for a total of 12 schools; four for their first choice, four for their second, four for their third, and four for their fourth.
Once admitted to senior schools, learners will take seven subjects, four of which are compulsory.
