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.
Learning
Whatachildactuallylearnshere.
Kenya changed its curriculum, and it changed what a primary school is. This page is the whole path from Grade 1 to Grade 9, written for a parent who has not been asked to learn a new system and now has to.
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.
| 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. |
The learning areas and the thirty-five-lesson week are set nationally by
KICD and the Ministry of Education; they are the same at every school in
the country and are not a claim about this one. Which religious education
strands run here in practice is a question for the office.
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 60%
KPSEA 20%
SBA 20%
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
| KJSEA, end of Grade 9 | 60% |
|---|---|
| KPSEA, end of Grade 6 | 20% |
| School-based assessment, Grades 7 to 9 | 20% |
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.
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.
Weightings, the seventy-two-point scale and the achievement levels are
the national design published by KICD. Madaraka Primary does not publish
its own results, and none appear anywhere on this site — if you want to
know how a particular cohort did, ask the office.
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.
The schedule is not dated to this year, so what the connection supports today is a question for the office rather than something this page should assert.
Public record
Confirm current provision
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.
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.
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