Walk into classrooms across Kenya and you’ll find something troubling, a CBE system stretched beyond its breaking point, trying to serve two masters and failing both. The Competency-Based Education framework arrived with genuine promise and commitment to moving beyond memorization toward developing young people who can actually think and adapt.
Yet years into implementation particularly as the first cohort of Grade 10 are starting to learn in senior schools the reality reveals something different: good intentions meeting inadequate resources, ambitious curriculum meeting unprepared infrastructure and students caught in the middle of a transition that feels increasingly chaotic. The time for gradual adjustments has passed. Grade 10 implementation needs urgent intervention before the entire system buckles under the strain.
Let us be honest about what is happening on the ground. Teachers trained under the old system are being asked to teach a fundamentally different way without adequate resources, ongoing support or clarity about expectations.
Schools lack the basic materials such as textbooks, teaching aids and assessment tools that CBE demands. The shift from memorization to competency-based learning requires thoughtful curriculum design and carefully calibrated assessment, yet many educators are still navigating contradictory guidelines and constantly changing directives. Add to this the reality that Grade 10 represents a critical juncture where students transition from foundational learning to more specialized pathways and you have a moment that desperately needs our full attention and resources.
The infrastructure challenges are particularly acute. CBE’s emphasis on practical learning and competency demonstration requires different physical spaces, equipment and support systems than 8-4-4 system of education. A student learning through competency-based approaches needs access to real-world scenarios, practical workshops and mentorship opportunities that many schools simply cannot provide.
Vocational components that should be meaningful learning experiences often become afterthoughts due to lack of proper facilities or trained facilitators. When Grade 10 students are expected to make informed decisions about their educational pathways, yet they have had limited exposure to the actual competencies required in different fields how fair is that choice really?
There is also the human element that gets overlooked in policy discussions. Teachers are the backbone of any educational system, yet many feel unsupported and uncertain. They are grading student work based on competency frameworks that are still being interpreted differently across schools. Parents do not fully understand what their children are being assessed on. Students themselves often lack clarity about what competency actually means or how they are progressing. This uncertainty breeds anxiety. It creates cracks where inequality seeps in students with informed, engaged families navigate the confusion better than those without such support systems.
Some argue we should simply let the system mature, that these growing pains are normal for any major reform. That argument would carry more weight if we we are not talking about young people’s futures. Every cohort that passes through an inadequately implemented CBE system carries the consequences of that inadequacy forward. Grade 10 students making educational decisions based on incomplete information or limited exposure to actual career pathways are not experiencing a temporary inconvenience rather they are experiencing a constraint on their own potential.
So what would urgent intervention look like? First, massive investment in teacher professional development not one-off workshops but ongoing support, communities of practice and genuine time to implement new teaching methods. Second, a systematic audit of school infrastructure and a realistic timeline for ensuring all schools have minimum resources for CBE implementation. Third, clarity and consistency in curriculum documents and assessment standards, so that a Grade 10 student in cities like Nairobi experiences the same rigor and support as one in upcountry like ASAL counties. Fourth, meaningful partnerships between schools and industries so students can actually encounter the competencies they are being taught.
A well-implemented CBE system could transform Kenya’s education, creating graduates who are adaptive, innovative and genuinely prepared for a changing world. But a poorly implemented one, one that collapses under its own contradictions could set education back significantly. We cannot afford for Grade 10 to become the moment when this ambitious reform unravels.
Kenya’s education system stands at a crossroads. The CBE vision is sound, but the execution has fallen dangerously short of what is needed. Grade 10 represents both a crisis point and an opportunity and a moment to finally provide the resources, support and clarity that should have been in place from the beginning. Waiting for things to improve naturally is not an option. The time for urgent action is now.
