Why CBE candidates will have no certificates
Education
By
Lewis Nyaundi and Mike Kihaki
| Oct 27, 2025
The education system is poised for another historic shift as the country prepares to administer the first Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) for Grade 9 learners, the pioneer class of the Competency-Based Education (CBE).
The national assessment, scheduled for October 27 to November 3, marks the end of junior secondary school and the transition to senior school. According to the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec), the KJSEA will evaluate learners’ competencies across nine learning areas through a combination of multiple-choice, structured and essay-type questions, alongside practical projects.
In one of the major shifts from the long-standing examination tradition, the 1.1 million candidates starting KJSEA test today will not be issued with a certificate when the results are released. Instead, candidates will 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 secondary schools.
A certificate will only be issued at the end of Senior School (Grade 12) after learners complete their final examination.
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Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba said the new system represents a fundamental shift from the old Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) model, emphasising skills, creativity, and continuous learning rather than one-off, high-stakes testing.
“KJSEA is not about ranking or elimination; it’s about understanding what a learner can do with the knowledge they have acquired. It values skills, innovation, and real-world problem-solving,” said Ogamba.
The changes follow the phasing out of the KCPE in 2023, paving the way for a two-tier testing system in which learners are assessed at the end of primary and junior school before joining senior secondary school.
KNEC says the reforms aim to eliminate one-off, high-pressure exams and encourage continuous assessment. Under the new arrangement, candidates enter the exam having earned up to 40 per cent of their final mark from their Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) results in Grade 6 and classroom assessments in Grades 7 and 8.
They will now compete for the remaining 60 per cent through the KJSEA, a significant departure from the KCPE, which determined 100 per cent of the final score.
The examination run for six days until November 3, also marking a departure from the KCPE exams that only ran for three days.
This year, 2.3 million learners are sitting their final CBE assessments — 1,130,679 in junior school and 1,298,089 in primary school — while another 996,078 candidates are taking the KCSE, bringing the total number of national examination candidates to 3.4 million, the highest in Kenya’s history.
KJSEA will evaluate learners in nine broad areas: English, Kiswahili, Mathematics, Integrated Science, Social Studies, Religious Education (Christian, Islamic or Hindu), Agriculture, Pre-Technical Studies, Creative Arts and Sports, and Kenyan Sign Language for hearing-impaired students.
And unlike the KCPE, which relied entirely on multiple-choice questions, KJSEA combines multiple-choice, short-answer and essay questions. In some subjects, such as Pre-Technical Studies and Creative Arts, learners have been assessed through projects conducted throughout Grade 9, mirroring the KCSE model used in Agriculture and other technical subjects.
Administration procedures have equally changed. The number of police officers deployed to exam centres has been reduced, with primary school teachers serving as invigilators and secondary school teachers as supervisors to curb malpractice.