Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba announced that the 2025 KCSE (Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education) examinations will be released in January 2026. According to the CS, the government wants to provide accuracy and transparency when marking and processing examination results before releasing them to the public.
The 2025 KCSE exams officially started on 21 October 2025 and included oral examinations in various languages (e.g., French, German, Arabic, and Kenyan Sign Language) and practical examinations that ended by the end of October. The number of candidates sitting for the KCSE exams this year has increased to nearly 1 million and continues to increase throughout Kenya.”
Millions of students in grades 6 and 9 are currently undergoing the National Assessments as prescribed by the competency-based education (CBE) system. The Grade 6 learner will take the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA), as this will denote the end of primary education, and the Grade 9 learner will take the Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA), which marks the progression to senior secondary school, set to begin in January 2026. Unlike the former KCPE format, Grade 9 students are not to receive a certificate on completion. Instead, they will receive an official slip indicating their achievements across the various subjects.
Additionally, the results of the assessments will be accumulated from the classroom-based assessments conducted in previous grades along with their overall coursework assessments to calculate a final score. The CS stated that the new system is focused more on developing skills, creativity, and continuous assessment than on placing too much pressure through examinations. Therefore, learners will gain a placement into senior schools according to their capabilities and interests based on three pathways: Arts & Sports, Science & Technology, and Social & Economic Studies. This change represents an important step toward the reforms of the Kenyan education system.
By Newshub