John S. Khabamba

Thousands of Grade 10 transfer requests were rejected even before the transfer window was closed, much to the disappointment – and in some cases anger – of parents and learners. While the government maintains that there was never a guarantee that transfers would be approved, the scale of the rejections raises serious questions about how realistic the original placements were. PS Julius Bittok (on the left) consulting Education Secretary Julius Ogamba during the release of KJSEA Results on 11th December.   Photo:Courtesy The official position is that placements were done strictly based on learners’ choices. We have even been told that a learner being placed in a day school more than 100 kilometres away from home was still the learner’s own choice.  But if this is true, one question remains unanswered: Why would learners deliberately choose day schools located hundreds of kilometres from their homes, fully aware that placement in those schools was a real possibility? The answer ...

 Babu Owino cannot simply inherit ODM and automatically become the Luo kingpin the way someone inherits property  or worse, a wife. Leadership in Luo politics has never worked that way. Photo: Embakasi East MP, Babu Owino consulting the late Raila Odinga In an event   Raila Odinga did not inherit ODM. He fought for it. He endured detention, exile, betrayal and near-political death. His struggle resonated with the frustrations of the Luo community and with millions across the Republic. Over time, he became more than a politician — almost a cult-like figure whose authority flowed from sacrifice, not succession. It is therefore misleading for polls such as the recent Infotrack survey to casually position Babu Owino as the “next in line” to the ODM throne. ODM is not a monarchy. It is a movement built on struggle, not inheritance. The bigger danger is what such narratives do to the fragile post-Baba unity within the party. ODM is still in mourning politically. Its base is sti...

 Despite the Ministry of Education’s insistence that KJSEA does not rank learners and that placement under CBE is non-discriminatory, the release of recent Grade 10 placements has sparked debates over whether academic ranking persists under a new label.  Following public outcry, the Ministry allowed requests for school transfers, but the review process largely reinforced merit-based placement patterns. Of 117,000 transfer requests received in the opening two days, only about 20,000 have been processed so far.Most approved transfers are within the same cluster or to lower clusters (e.g., C2 to C2).Learners placed in C4 seeking transfer to C3, C2, or C1 are largely being rejected, exposing hidden stratification.The outcome raises questions about whether CBE has removed ranking in practice or merely rebranded it. The Ministry of Education has repeatedly assured parents and the public that the Kenya Junior Secondary Education Assessment (KJSEA) does not rank learners and therefore...

The failure of the Education Ministry to release Grade 10 placement results has escalated anxiety among KJSEA candidates. Over a week after the release of the KJSEA results, the Ministry had indicated that placements would follow almost immediately. Speaking during the inaugural release of KJSEA  last Thursday, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba assured the public that over one million students would know their respective senior schools before Christmas. “Placement of candidates who sat for this year’s Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) is set to begin next week,” he announced while taking questions from the press. This was intended to ensure adequate planning ahead of the first-ever senior school transition. “All candidates will know the senior schools they have been placed in by December 20,” he added, noting that over 60% of learners qualify to take the STEM pathway, as envisaged by the framers of the CBC. While addressing delegates at the Kenya Union of Tea...

 Two days after flagging KJSEA results analysis as fake, the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has continued to dismiss persistent social media posts by schools publishing such analyses. Source : KNEC (Facebook)  Also Read:  KNEC Warns Schools Against Analyzing KJSEA Results The council maintains that KJSEA results do not require further analysis and has urged schools to refrain from reviving the old system of mean scores and rankings, which it says breeds unhealthy competition. In a series of Facebook posts, KNEC condemned several schools for continuing to publish fake analysis, noting that the practice contravenes assessment reporting guidelines under Competency-Based Education (CBE). “Reporting in KJSEA uses descriptive terms rather than raw marks to avoid reviving excessive competition associated with the former 8-4-4 system,” the council explained in a follow-up Facebook post issued a few hours after flagging the results analysis of a certain junior school. ...

 As the public continues to grapple with understanding the inaugural Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) results released on 11th December, the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has issued a stern warning to schools conducting independent analyses of the outcomes. Photo: KNEC Logo The warning comes amid widespread circulation of result breakdowns purporting to rank schools and generate mean scores an approach KNEC says is misleading and inconsistent with the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) framework under which KJSEA was administered. In a statement shared on its official Facebook page, in which it flagged Results analysis from a Junior School in Kisii County , the examination body urged schools to stop misleading the public with fake and inaccurate KJSEA results analysis, stressing that the new assessment system is fundamentally different from the former 8-4-4 examination structure. KNEC clarified that, unlike the previous system, KJSEA does not generate an...