Grade 9 Senior School Selection in Kenya to Begin on May 20, 2025
Grade 9 students will commence the selection of their Senior Secondary Schools on May 20, as announced by the government.
The announcement was made on Thursday, April 24, by Education PS Julius Jwan during his address at the National Convention on Competency-Based Education held at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC).
As indicated by the PS, the early initiation of this process is intended to facilitate a smooth transition for students from Junior Secondary School to Senior Secondary School, which begins at Grade 10.
“We have developed guidelines to assist our learners in transitioning from Grade 9 to Grade 10. Commencing May 20, we will enable our learners to start making their choices for senior schools,” he stated.
Bitok further elaborated that, in contrast to previous years, the government is eager to utilize technology during the selection process.
Schools will be classified according to pathways, which include Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Social Sciences (Humanities), Performing Arts, Music, and Athletics, according to the Deputy Director of Education at the Ministry of Education, Fred Odhiambo.
Students will subsequently be required to select 12 schools during the selection process. Out of these 12 schools, nine must be boarding institutions, and within these nine, three must belong to the student’s home county.
The remaining three school selections will necessarily be day schools situated within the student’s home sub-county.
This announcement constitutes the latest significant update from the Ministry of Education, following CS Ogamba’s directive to reinstate mathematics as a compulsory subject in senior secondary schools.
It is important to note that Mathematics, which was previously designated as an optional subject in Senior Secondary School, will now be mandated due to the directive issued by Education CS Julius Ogamba.
As explained by the CS, with the implementation of this new directive, students opting for the STEM pathway will undertake pure mathematics, while the other two pathways will offer a simplified version of mathematics.
“We will have the STEM pathways taking pure maths, and the other two pathways having a form of maths, so that we incorporate maths in all three pathways in senior school,” the CS clarified.
In contrast to the 8-4-4 curriculum, where mathematics was a compulsory subject, the Ministry has now mandated that students in senior school will have the option to discontinue the subject depending on their chosen pathway.
