CBC senior school pathways at Grade 10

The three pathways

The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development has published designs for three pathways. Each has its own compulsory learning areas and its own electives.

• STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics, including pure sciences, applied sciences and technical tracks
• Social Sciences — humanities, languages, business studies and social studies
• Arts and Sports Science — creative, visual and performing arts, and sports science

What a Grade 10 learner actually studies

Senior school learners take seven subjects in total: four core subjects that everyone takes, plus three drawn from their chosen pathway.

The four core subjects are English, Kiswahili or Kenyan Sign Language, Community Service Learning, and Physical Education.

The three pathway subjects depend on the track a learner enters and on what their school actually offers, which is why school choice and pathway choice are bound together.

How placement works

Placement is not by preference alone. A learner's score combines School-Based Assessment from junior school, weighted at 40 per cent, with the KJSEA result, weighted at 60 per cent.

Selection happens through the Ministry of Education's national digital platform, where learners list school choices against their chosen pathway. Not every senior school offers every pathway or every subject combination, so the list has to be built around what is genuinely available.

The old national, extra-county, county and sub-county labels have been replaced by a cluster system, with the most competitive schools filled on merit.

Choosing well

Career guidance sessions run during Grade 9, and they are worth taking seriously — this is a three-year commitment, not a term's subject choice.

The most useful thing a parent can do is look honestly at where a learner is already strong across the Grade 9 learning areas, rather than at which pathway sounds most prestigious. A learner placed in a pathway that does not suit them has two further years of it.