The inaugural Grade 10 class under the Curriculum Based Education (CBE) is set to start in January 2026. However, questions continue to linger on the viability and quality of the CBE education system which has been gradually replacing the 8-4-4 system.

These questions have become more prominent due to the chaos that has rocked the implementation of the system, raising concerns that learners could be getting subjected to a system that is poorer in quality.

According to economic analyst Ephraim Njega, the CBE education system should be scrapped. The learners who are set to join Grade 10 in January should be prepared to sit for KCSE exams in 2018 in what will be a strategic rollback from the current system to the previous system.

Mr. Njega reasons that this new system is straining the economy without any reasonable justification.

“We had an education system which was internationally acclaimed and which has produced one of the most diversified economies in Africa. But now we are acting as if we never had education in this country before CBE. Why couldn’t we improve our 8-4-4 and export it to other countries? Must we import everything?” he argued on his platform.

According to Dr. Bundi Karau, a senior lecturer in Internal Medicine at Kenya Methodist University and a fellow in Neurology at St John’s Medical College in Bangalore, India, the CBE education system has proven impossible for the government to rollout efficiently.

“The transition from upper primary to junior school has been challenging for the government. For the first time, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) employed a record number of tutors to plug the human resource gap but the shortage continues to plague schools,” he states.

“In some schools, one teacher has had to handle different learning areas, some outside their areas of specialization.”

He adds that these severely overloaded teachers won’t have the time to mentor children on their career pathways. This will disadvantage children from rural areas and poorly equipped schools which will lead to wrong and highly consequential choices.

Dr. Karau also points that allowing kids aged below fifteen years to choose career pathways so young is wrong. He reasons that the early specialization that kids are being subject to will produce a generation of disgruntled career misfits.

“These children are at an age in which they are unlikely to know what they want with their lives.  The last part of the brain to mature is the frontal lobe, which mediates higher functions. Before age 21, someone can make a decision and follow through to achieve it. What they lack is the insight and foresight to know the consequences of that decision,” states Dr. Karau.

According to Dr. Wandia Njoya, the acceptance of CBC just because it was not 8-4-4 system was not a wise position to take at all.

“Other than getting your kid an acceptable school, I think it’s important to do the work and understand what education is (it’s not the equivalent of schooling), and what CBC is, especially for the younger children,” she argued.

“The reason we accepted CBC is because of the propaganda and gaslighting we were treated to. So sadly, you have to disentangle your minds from the propaganda and look at CBC for what it actually is.”

Dr. Njoya cautions that the pathways are going to present the next nightmare to all children because people are not going to be allowed to change careers if they didn’t take the pathway required.

See formula used to place learners in senior schools after KJSEA results

Grade 10 students will be allowed to change their senior school placement and career pathways from Tuesday, December 23, 2025. This will be done during the revision window that has been provided by the Ministry of Education.

The window is meant to allow learners who were not satisfied with the choice of schools or pathways they got to select new options that they qualify for. The window will last for seven days.

“We encourage all involved parties to engage constructively in the placement process as we collectively refine and strengthen Curriculum Based Education (CBE) for the benefit of our learners. We [want] to make the placement process as transparent, fair, and satisfactory as possible while taking into account learners’ preferences and the capacities and available pathways in respective schools,” said Professor Julius Bitok, the Principal Secretary for Basic Education.

“Candidates are advised to contact their Grade 9 schools or the Ministry of Education Sub-County and County offices to take advantage of this window through their respective heads of institutions.”

READ MORE: Formula used to place learners in senior schools after KJSEA results

According to the Ministry of Education, the review will be guided by an automated system that will match preferences to learners’ performance and the availability of slots in schools. During the review period, incorrect gender entries will also be addressed.

The Ministry says that learners will then be able to submit their revised choices, which will include switching from STEM to Social Sciences as long as they meet the requirements for the switch and the new schools of choice have open spaces.

The new choices will be submitted through their junior schools. The system will generate schools that are available for selection out of which the learners will pick from.

Currently, placement results are accessible through the ministry’s portal placement.education.go.ke 

For the KJSEA exams, 600,000 chose the STEM pathway, 437,000 chose Social Science while 124,000 chose Arts & Sports. The results of the KJSEA comprised of an aggregate of 20 percent from the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) which is done at Grade Six, 20 percent from the school-based assessments (SBA) which is done in Grade Seven and Grade Eight, and 60 percent from the Grade Nine KJSEA assessment.