A new chapter opens as KCSE gives way to KCBE

The Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) will be replaced by a new examination, the Kenya Certificate of Basic Education (KCBE) under the Competency-Based Education (CBE) system.

The new examination will be administered for the first time in 2028 to the current cohort of Grade 9 learners who sat the inaugural Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) which concluded on Monday.

Education Cabinet Secretary, Julius Ogamba, confirmed that the new examination will mark the end of basic education at Grade 12, closing a four-decade chapter of the KCSE exam first issued in 1989.

The examination will also be the only test which CBE candidates will be issued with a certificate, unlike under 8-4-4, where the students were issued two certificates at the end of KCPE and KCSE.

“In the Competency-Based Education system, learners will be expected to be certified at the end of Grade 12, which is the end of basic education,” Ogamba said in an interview with The Standard.

Currently, only three KCSE sittings are left before the end of the exam, which was first administered in 1989. The KCBE will be the final national test under the 2-6-3-3-3 education structure and will signify the completion of basic education.

According to the CS, the KCBE will assess mastery of core competencies, life skills, and values rather than focusing exclusively on academic subjects.

The new examination will also integrate pathways specialisation, with learners in senior school choosing between Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (Stem), Social Sciences, or Arts and Sports, based on their interests and aptitudes.

“Certificates after senior school will be issued based on the specialisation pathway of the candidates. This will provide a more convergent entry into university and tertiary training than previously in the 8-4-4 system,” Ogamba said.

But the biggest change will see students taking technical subjects in senior school issued with two certificates.

One will be the KCBE certificate, while the other will be a certificate to recognise their skill expertise.

The changes come after the KCPE was phased out in 2023 to give way to a two-tier testing system that will see students tested at the end of primary and junior school before joining senior secondary school.

The Kenya National Examinations Council says these are part of reforms aimed at ending one-off, high-pressure examinations in the country.

Under the new structure, police officers will no longer be stationed inside schools during the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment. (KPSEA) and KJSEA assessments

Instead, their role will be limited to escorting assessment materials from storage containers to examination centres and back.

At the same time, the CS said students taking KPSEA and KJSEA will not be issued a certificate.

He said the issuance of certificates had opened doors for unnecessary competition.

“The award of certificates at primary level in the 8-4-4 system introduced undue competition and discouraged children who, at a very young age, were considered to have failed yet had not had an opportunity to explore education and find their niche to excel,” Ogamba explained.

Instead, the candidates will only be issued with result slips showing their performance in each subject, without an overall grade. The overall score will be shared exclusively with the Ministry of Education to guide placement into senior schools.

CS Ogamba also said that the reforms also seek to end the high drop-out rates witnessed in the 8-4-4 system from primary to secondary school.

Data from KNEC shows that between 2017 and 2020, transition rates averaged 82 percent, meaning thousands of learners who sat for KCPE never made it to KCSE.

This means nearly one in every five learners dropped out somewhere along the secondary education journey.

In 2017, for instance, 993,718 pupils sat the KCPE, but only 826,807 eventually completed secondary school and took the KCSE in 2021, a transition rate of 83.2 percent.

Similarly, in 2018 KCPE class had 1,052,344 candidates, but only 881,416 completed KCSE in 2022.

In 2019, 1,083,456 sat KCPE, with 899,453 writing KCSE in 2023.

And for the 2020 cohort, 1,179,192 sat KCPE, yet just 962,512 reached KCSE in 2024 — a drop of over 216,000 students.

But Ogamba says they believe that issuing one final certificate at the end of Grade 12 will encourage learners to remain in school through to the completion of basic education.

“The award of a certificate at the end of Basic Education may help in curbing school dropout and improve completion rates,” the CS said.

KNEC added that the move to issue transcripts before the final certification aligns with international best practices, citing models used in Canada and Cambridge International systems, where continuous assessment records are used to track learner progress.

“The use of transcripts to show learner progress is a globally accepted practice,” Ogamba said.