Ministry of Education’s New Categorization of Schools

Ministry of Education’s New Categorization of Schools

Schools in Kenya will now lose the status they have been early assigned like National, extra county and County schools as the Ministry of Education plans to do an overhaul of schools and new classifications in line with the competency Based Curriculum (CBC).

This will depict a three-tier structure that will categorize schools in various pathways as outline in the CBC framework.

The Ministry of Education has started mapping out schools in readiness to host the pioneer class which is now in grade 8 in senior secondary school in 2026.

The mapping exercise is expected to end next year even as the pioneer class has 18 months to be admitted to Senior School.

The Principal Secretary of Education, Belio Kipsang stated that the new categories that will replace the old ones include;

• Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
• Humanities and Arts School
• Creative Arts and Sports Schools.

These school will offer a combination of three streams that will allow the learners explore a wife range of disciplines.

Education stakeholders met last week on Wednesday at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) where they were discussing on the finer details that needs to be fine tuned as the pioneer class is expected to shift to Senior School.

“We won’t allow this time round to go through sleepless nights like what happened in Junior School (JS),” Said Kipsang.

To determine the school a learner will join, they will sit for exams (KLEA) in grade 9 which will determine where he/she will be placed in the three schools.

“As we reflect in grade 9 and the type of assessment we will have, let’s keep in mind that the assessment is not for placement but for pathways,” Kipsang further said.

The PS further said that it will phase out the merit-base admission into schools as much as the examination is equally important.

Finer details on how the final score will be be computed have been derailed by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) stakeholders.

Ministry of Education’s New Categorization of Schools