The 2025 Kenya Junior School Education Assessment has introduced a new grading model that moves away from traditional marks, using performance levels instead of numerical scores to determine how learners have fared.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba said the system relies on four levels — Exceeding Expectation, Meeting Expectation, Approaching Expectation and Below Expectation — to describe the performance of every candidate.
He said the final grade for each learner was drawn from three components: 20 per cent from the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment done earlier, 20 per cent from school-based assessments in Grade 7 and 8, and 60 per cent from the summative Grade 9 evaluation.
While releasing the results at the Kenya National Examination Council offices in Nairobi, Ogamba explained that the grading has been placed on an eight-point scale to give a clearer picture of each learner’s outcomes.
"The reporting of performance of KJSEA has thus been done from point 1 to point 8 where point 8 is the best at Exceeding Expectation 1 and point 1 is the least at Below Expectation 2," he said.
Ogamba said the use of the bands is meant to show clear differences between top performers and those who scored well. He noted that out of the 12 learning areas tested, seven registered a higher share of candidates in the Meeting Expectation and Exceeding Expectation categories.
These included Hindu Religious Education (84.62 per cent), Integrated Science (61.77 per cent), Social Studies (58.56 per cent), Creative Arts and Sports (58.04 per cent), Kiswahili (57.98 per cent), Christian Religious Education (53.96 per cent) and Agriculture at 52.26 per cent.
According to the CS, three out of four learners attained Approaching Expectation and above across all learning areas under the Competency-Based Education system.
"Creative Arts and Sports registered the strongest performance with 96.84 per cent of candidates attaining Approaching Expectation and above," Ogamba said.
He added that Agriculture followed closely with 96.2 per cent of candidates posting similar results, while Kiswahili and Social Studies had 93.11 per cent and 92.92 per cent respectively.
"An Approaching Expectation grade is sufficient for learners to progress to Senior School pathways that require basic competencies in the subject areas," he said.
Ogamba also revealed that girls recorded stronger results than boys in Exceeding Expectation in 10 of the 12 subjects assessed. He said the widest gap appeared in Kiswahili, where 64.86 per cent of girls exceeded expectations compared to 51.41 per cent of boys. Girls also led in CRE with 59.77 per cent compared to 48.39 per cent of boys.
In English, 52.86 per cent of girls exceeded expectations against 48.45 per cent of boys. Ogamba said girls also outdid boys in Social Studies, with 62.89 per cent exceeding expectations against 54.35 per cent of boys.
"Of concern, however, are Mathematics and Kenya Sign Language which recorded 32.44 per cent and 22.14 per cent of learners performing at Meeting and Exceeding Expectation respectively," Ogamba said.
A total of 1,130,459 candidates took the 2025 assessment; 578,630 boys and 551,829 girls. Ogamba said 59.09 per cent of the candidates showed the ability to pursue the STEM pathway in Senior School, while 46.52 per cent qualified for the Social Sciences pathway and 48.73 per cent for the Arts and Sports pathway.
He said all learners will be placed in Senior Schools based on their performance levels and selected pathways. The 9,540 Senior Schools have been grouped as C1, C2, C3 and C4, with C1 being the former national schools, C2 extra-county, C3 county and C4 subcounty.
The grouping was done according to the pathways each school will offer.
Ogamba assured that the institutions have enough space to take in all learners moving to Grade 10. He said this is possible because 929,262 learners will be exiting secondary school after this year’s KCSE, leaving only three classes running.
"These classrooms are expected to provide extra space enabling us to avoid overcrowding. We therefore have more than enough capacity to accommodate the learners," he said.
He announced that placement will begin next week and end by December 20, 2025. Grade 10 reporting will start on January 12, 2026.
