Parents Urged to Guide Grade 9 Learners in Selecting CBE Senior School Pathways

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Parents Urged to Guide Grade 9 Learners in Selecting CBE Senior School Pathways.

As Kenya prepares to roll out Grade 10 under the Competency-Based Education (CBE) framework starting January 2026, education stakeholders have told parents to help learners choose senior secondary schools and align their chosen pathways with long term career goals.

Under the CBE system, learners entering senior school will have to choose one of three prescribed pathways: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM); Social Sciences; or Arts and Sports Science.

At a prize-giving ceremony at Mama Ngina Girls’ High School, Professor Leila Abubakar, Vice-Chancellor of Technical University of Mombasa said the new curriculum is meant to nurture talents, accelerate knowledge acquisition and innovation as opposed to rote learning of the 8-4-4 system.

Professor Abubakar said Mama Ngina Girls’ High School being a national school will be able to offer all the three pathways when they transition to senior secondary education. She commended the teachers in Grades 8 and 9 for preparing learners for the transition and said initial challenges are being addressed as they get more familiar and trained.

“Initially like any other thing it has its own issues at the beginning; parents don’t know but I know the teachers now have gone through those pathways; they have been able to know and align to those pathways,” Professor Abubakar said.

She added that the introduction of pathways is not new, noting that specialization happened during the A-level phase under the 7-4-2-3 education system.

“I think it will be a good transition and it will be very smooth. The students will now be able to take the courses. So by the time they go to the university during placement they already know which courses or pathways they are going to take,” she said.

Professor Abubakar said the structured approach will allow learners to focus on areas of strength and improve performance and reduce grade dilution across different subjects.“Instead of a student is doing well in sciences and not doing well in humanities or vice versa, you find their mean grade going down, but now they already have their pathway charted and they will do well in the subjects they have chosen,” she said.

She also urged schools in the coastal region to incorporate Blue Economy in technical education offerings and include marine studies as an area of specialization.

“That is a pathway that schools from the coast region need to take up and actually be able to offer that pathway. I think it is very important and you know very well the government is now keen on the blue economy,” Professor Abubakar said.

Mama Ngina Girls’ High School Principal Mrs Mwanahamisi Omar said the school is ready for the transition and will adopt the new subjects under the CBE.

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“We are very ready for it,” she said and urged parents to support learners consistently for better performance.

County Education Officer Samuel Kiragu said schools in the region can deliver the three pathways and advised school administrations to educate parents on the importance of being involved in guiding learners to choose their preferred senior schools in line with their interests and abilities.

Parents Urged to Guide Grade 9 Learners in Selecting CBE Senior School Pathways.