The Ministry of Education recorded an overwhelming response on the first day of the Grade 10 placement review period, receiving roughly 100,000 requests from parents and learners seeking changes to assigned pathways and school clusters.
Basic Education Principal Secretary Julius Bitok, speaking in Naivasha on Tuesday after overseeing the process at a local school, said about 2,000 of the applications had been approved by Tuesday afternoon. He appealed for patience, noting that the system faced early delays due to the sheer volume of submissions.
A total of 1,130,459 learners sat the Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA), including 578,630 boys and 551,829 girls. Candidates who attained an “Approaching Expectation” grade are set to transition to Grade 10 on January 12, 2026, where they will pursue pathways in STEM, Social Sciences, or Arts and Sports.
Bitok explained that nearly 100,000 learners from the 1.13 million candidates are seeking to revise their placement outcomes. By 4pm on the first day, approvals had been granted across clusters C1 to C4, covering both pathway and school cluster changes.
He said the review process is fully digital and automated, with support from education officers at various administrative levels to speed up approvals. Requests for cluster C1 schools, formerly national schools, are being handled at the ministry headquarters in Nairobi. Regional directors are processing cluster C2 applications for former extra-county schools, county directors are overseeing cluster C3 requests for former county schools, while subcounty directors are managing cluster C4 applications for former subcounty day schools.
Despite the high demand, Bitok expressed confidence that all applications would be handled within the seven-day window. He noted that the system experienced strain on the first morning due to traffic spikes, prompting the ministry to seek additional storage and bandwidth support from the ICT ministry.
The placement review is being conducted through the Kenya Education Information Management System (KEMIS), marking its first large-scale use for senior school placement. Bitok reassured parents and stakeholders that the ministry is streamlining the system to ensure every learner gets a fair opportunity to pursue their preferred pathway.
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He encouraged families to make full use of the seven-day review period, dismissing concerns that the timeline is too short. According to Bitok, the ministry has the capacity to process the applications, even at the current rate of about 100,000 requests per day.
The approval process is being supported by around 400 subcounty directors, 47 county directors, eight regional directors, over 20 officers at the ministry headquarters, and more than 20,000 school heads nationwide. Although schools are closed for the Christmas break, head teachers have been instructed to remain available to assist learners remotely with placement revisions.