Senior School Placement and Pathways: STEM, Social Sciences, Arts and Sports

Last reviewed: 18 October 2026

Senior school (Grades 10 to 12) is where Competency-Based Education (CBE) asks learners to specialise. Each learner joins one of three pathways and takes a three-subject combination within it. Placement into a school is done online by the Ministry of Education, using the learner’s results, pathway, school choices and the space available. This guide explains how it works, based on how the first cohort was placed in December 2025, and what parents should do in Grade 9. Information is as of October 2026. The Ministry may adjust details for the 2026 cohort, so check its announcements when results come out.

On this page

1. The Three Pathways and Their Tracks
2. The Score Used for Placement
3. Choosing a Pathway and 12 Schools
4. School Clusters: C1 to C4
5. How Learners Were Matched to Schools
6. Capacity: Will There Be a Place?
7. Admission and Transfers
8. What It Costs

The Three Pathways and Their Tracks

The Ministry and the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) organise senior school into three pathways, each split into tracks:

The example combinations and their codes come from the Ministry’s published list of senior school subject combinations (selection.education.go.ke). On top of the three pathway subjects, every learner takes four core subjects: English, Kiswahili (or Kenyan Sign Language), Community Service Learning, and Mathematics. STEM learners take Core Mathematics, and other pathways take Essential Mathematics. Physical Education and ICT are timetabled as support subjects (Ministry of Education, Guidelines for Implementation of Senior School Education, October 2025). Our Grade 9 subject combinations guide goes deeper.

The Score Used for Placement

Placement uses a combined score made up of:

• 60% from the Grade 9 KJSEA;
• 20% from school-based assessment in Grades 7 and 8; and
• 20% from KPSEA in Grade 6.

This 60:20:20 split was confirmed by KNEC and by the Education Cabinet Secretary when the 2025 results were released (Ministry of Education; The Star). Note that one Ministry statement words it as “forty percent … based on KPSEA”. Every other official account we found gives 20% KPSEA and 20% school-based assessment, which together make up that 40%.

Choosing a Pathway and 12 Schools

Pathway selection happens in Grade 9, before KJSEA, with guidance from teachers and parents. For the first cohort, each learner picked a pathway with a three-subject combination and then chose 12 senior schools: nine boarding schools (three in their home county and six outside it) and three day schools in their home sub-county (The Star; Daily Nation). Choose day schools seriously: they are fee-free, and they are the realistic fallback.

The Ministry said learners could revise their choices for five days after results, similar to how KUCCPS lets university applicants revise. If you are new to that system, the KUCCPS placement explainer on Business Radar shows how such a revision window works.

School Clusters: C1 to C4

Under CBE, public senior schools are grouped into clusters instead of the old “national, extra-county, county, sub-county” labels. Cluster 1 (C1) corresponds to the former national schools and offers all three pathways. Day schools mostly offer two pathways, depending on staff and facilities (Daily Nation). Media reports describe C2, C3 and C4 as broadly matching the former extra-county, county and sub-county schools. Check each school’s cluster and pathways on the official selection portal rather than relying on old categories.

How Learners Were Matched to Schools

The Ministry placed learners using an automated system that considered their choices, performance and “other considerations designed to promote merit, equity, and fairness” (Ministry of Education). Two features stand out:

• Priority boarding slots. In every sub-county, the top six boys and six girls in each STEM track got their preferred boarding schools. So did the top three of each gender in Social Sciences and the top two of each gender in Arts & Sports.
• County shares. Slots in each category of school were shared across counties using the County Revenue Allocation formula. The Daily Nation reported its weights as population 42%, learner performance 22%, poverty 14%, distance 13% and school size and infrastructure 9%.

A few schools with their own pre-selection, such as Starehe Boys’ Centre, kept those procedures, with admissions recorded in NEMIS.

Capacity: Will There Be a Place?

For the first cohort, the Ministry said the 9,540 senior schools had capacity for 2.2 million learners. It also said the extra classroom freed by the three-year senior school (instead of four-year secondary) would absorb the cohort (Daily Nation, quoting the CS). The policy is 100% transition. The real question is which school, not whether there is one.

Admission and Transfers

• Admission letters are issued online, and Grade 10 admission is recorded in NEMIS/KEMIS. Principals may not admit a learner in the system before the learner physically reports.
• Transfer requests go through the junior school at least two weeks before reporting. Priority goes to learners who had chosen the target school, and approval depends on space. Approved transfers are final (The Star).
• Any school demanding money for a place is acting illegally. The Education CS has told parents to report such demands to the police or education offices (Kenyans.co.ke).

What It Costs

Public day senior schools charge parents nothing in 2026. Boarding schools may charge up to the gazetted ceilings. See senior school fees 2026 and boarding vs day school costs before you finalise boarding choices.

Sources

• Ministry of Education, Status of the ongoing placement of Grade 9 learners.
• Ministry of Education, Subject combinations for senior schools.
• The Star, 11 December 2025; Daily Nation, 14 December 2025.