Madaraka Comprehensive School Lang'ata · Nairobi Enrol a child
A pupil in a maroon jumper, seen from behind, writing on the classroom blackboard.

Learning

Whatachildactuallylearnshere.

Kenya's Competency-Based Curriculum takes a child from Grade 1 to Grade 9 before senior school, and all nine years are taught here. This page is the whole path, written for parents.

The path

Nine years with us, then senior school.

Under Competency-Based Education a child does six years of primary and three of junior school — and junior school sits inside the primary school rather than somewhere else. Nine years on one compound, with the same people.

Grades 1–3

Lower primary

Reading, number, and the habit of school. Literacy in English and Kiswahili, mathematics, environmental activities, religious education, and creative arts and movement — much of it taught through play and doing rather than dictation.

Grades 4–6

Upper primary

Subjects separate out and the work gets formal: mathematics, English, Kiswahili, science and technology, social studies, agriculture, creative arts and religious education.

KPSEA at Grade 6
Grades 7–9

Junior school

Nine learning areas, the same for every learner in the country. No pathway choices yet — that decision is deliberately held back to Grade 10 — and a lighter week than before, at thirty-five lessons.

KJSEA at Grade 9
Grade 10 onward

Senior school

Learners leave us for a senior school, placed on their Grade 9 result into one of four clusters, and choose a pathway: STEM, Social Sciences, or Arts & Sports Science.

Junior school

The nine learning areas, and what each one is really for.

In 2024 the junior school curriculum was rationalised — subjects were merged, and the week came down from forty lessons to thirty-five. This is what a Grade 7, 8 or 9 learner now carries.

Junior school learning areas, Grades 7 to 9 — the same nine for every learner in Kenya.
Learning area What it covers
English Reading closely, writing clearly, and being able to hold a position in an argument.
Kiswahilior Kenyan Sign Language Lugha, fasihi na uandishi — the national language as a subject in its own right, not a translation exercise.
Mathematics Number, algebra, measurement, geometry and data — the spine of everything on the STEM pathway later.
Integrated Science Biology, chemistry and physics taught as one thing at this stage, with practical work rather than dictated notes.
Social Studies History, geography, citizenship and life skills, merged into a single area in the 2024 rationalisation.
Pre-Technical Studies Drawing, making, basic business and the digital literacy that used to sit on its own.
Agriculture & Nutrition Growing food and cooking it. Both are assessed partly by a project rather than by a paper.
Creative Arts & Sports Visual art, music, drama and games, merged into one integrated area and carrying a project component.
Religious Education Christian, Islamic or Hindu religious education, taken according to the family's own tradition.
Religious education is taken according to each family's own tradition; the office can tell you which strands are offered in a given year.

Assessment

A Grade 9 result is not one exam any more.

This is the change most worth understanding, because it changes how a family should think about the whole nine years. The final placement score is built from three things, and two of them are earned long before the last week.

KJSEA — the assessment sat at the end of Grade 9
KPSEA — sat three years earlier, at the end of Grade 6
SBA — school-based assessment, gathered across Grades 7, 8 and 9
01

Grade 6 counts

KPSEA is not a rehearsal. A fifth of the score that places a child in senior school is earned at eleven or twelve years old.

02

So does the ordinary week

School-based assessment is another fifth, and it is built from work done across three years. There is no cramming your way past it.

03

Points, not grades

Each of the nine areas is scored out of eight — seventy-two in total — and reported as an achievement level, from Below Expectation up to Exceeding Expectation.

The weightings, the seventy-two-point scale and the achievement levels are the national design published by KICD. For the school's own results, please ask the office.
Two junior-school boys in maroon jumpers and striped ties working together at a laptop in a classroom.
Digital literacy

Technology

A line into the school, before most schools had one.

Madaraka heads the published schedule of schools joined to KENET's Nairobi Schools Fibre Connectivity Project — the first name on the list. Digital work now sits inside Pre-Technical Studies rather than off to one side, which means every junior school learner does it, not only the ones who chose to.

Every junior school learner takes digital literacy as part of Pre-Technical Studies, so it is a subject every child does rather than one a few choose.

Beyond the desk

Creative Arts & Sports is a learning area now, not an extra.

Games, music, drama and art used to be what happened if there was time left. Under the current curriculum they are one of the nine areas a Grade 9 learner is assessed on — and they carry a project. Tap any photograph to open it.

Two boys in the school's yellow-and-black games kit running for the ball on the paved quadrangle.
Games, most afternoons
A young footballer in the school's yellow-and-black games kit with both arms raised, celebrating a goal.
Sports day
Young children in maroon jumpers at work in a bright classroom hung with charts and their own drawings.
Creative arts, lower primary
Girls in maroon jumpers and white collars smiling at their desks during a lesson.
In class
Pupils in maroon jumpers washing their hands at the outdoor trough before lunch.
Agriculture & Nutrition, in practice
A group of girls in maroon jumpers, white collars and orange gingham dresses laughing together outside a classroom.
Break

Ask the school

Curriculum questions, answered plainly.

The new system is genuinely confusing, and a parent should not have to read a KICD document to understand what their child is doing on a Tuesday.