Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang on Thursday, April 25, announced that the government was doing away with the national categorisation of schools.
Speaking during the Inaugural Annual Symposium on Competency-Based Assessment, Belio remarked this is one of the ways to implement the new curriculum.
Under the now-being-phased-out 8-4-4 system, secondary schools are categorised as national, extra-county, county and sub-county.
“We will soon convene a stakeholders engagement on the pathways and pathway placement in Senior School,” Kipsang spoke during the symposium.
“Secondary schools will soon be categorised according to the pathways they will offer.”
Secondary schools will now be renamed as senior schools and it is where pupils from Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) will enrol.
In the new categorisation, senior schools will now be identified on the combination of subjects offered in the institution.
This includes; Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Centres, Humanities and Arts Schools, and Creative Arts and Sports Schools.
The classification will largely depend on the resources and infrastructural capacity of the academic institution.
Given that most national schools possess ample resources such as libraries, laboratories, and social amenities, they are poised to provide a combination of the three streams.
Conversely, sub-county schools, constrained by limited resources, are likely to offer only one combination of subjects.
Students will now undergo a three-year duration in senior school before advancing to university or college, based on their interests and academic achievements.
