Why early CBE pathways choices is bad for children
Junior Secondary School learners during a science lesson at Bomu Primary School in Changamwe, Mombasa County in January 2025.
What you need to know:
- Most of these children are between 13 and 15 years old — an age where they are unlikely to know what they want with their lives.
- There are many compelling reasons why this early specialisation is likely to produce a generation of disgruntled career misfits.
This year, pioneer children in Grade 9 of Junior School under the new Competency Based Education (CBE) system prepare to transition to Senior School. They are, therefore, supposed to choose career pathways that will funnel them into four: Arts and Sports; Social Sciences; Technical Studies; and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
According to the algorithm released by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, there are over 550 different subject combinations that they are supposed to choose from, based on their strengths, talents and career aspirations.
Most of these children are between 13 and 15 years old — an age where they are unlikely to know what they want with their lives. The reason is simple and scientific; the last part of the brain to mature is the frontal lobe, which mediates higher functions. Before 21 years of age, someone can make a decision and follow through to achieve it. What they lack is the insight and the foresight to know the consequences of that decision.
This is why most Form Four achievers, who proudly announce their career options, don’t end up that way. After the frontal lobe matures, someone gets a panoramic view of the world, and knows deeply the implications of their choices. The same can be said of many other decisions like marriage and work.
Apart from this, there are many compelling reasons why this early specialisation is counterproductive and is likely to produce a generation of disgruntled career misfits.
Broader knowledge among learners
First, transition from upper primary to Junior School has been challenging for the government. For the first time, the Teachers Service Commission employed a record number of tutors to plug the human resource gap but the shortage continues to plague schools. In some institutions, one teacher has had to handle different learning areas, some outside their areas of specialisation.
It is, therefore, unlikely that these severely overloaded teachers would get time to mentor the children on the career pathways. This will undoubtedly disadvantage children from rural areas and poorly equipped schools, leading to wrong choices.
Second, today’s world demands broader knowledge and flexibility among learners. Professional courses like medicine and law are not undergraduate courses in most countries — rather they are undertaken after one has achieved bachelors, and sometimes masters and PhD in other fields. A doctor with no social skills like understanding patient behaviour and social concerns of their diseases would fail in addressing their specific clients’ issues no matter their knowledge in medicine. An architect with no art and creativity skills would barely produce socially impacting structural designs.
Third, in this evolving CBE, there seems to be no turning back after funnelling down the pathways. What if a child who chose Arts and Social Sciences later realises they are more inclined to STEM? Will there be an option of transfer? At what point will that be allowed, and under which conditions?
Shrinking job opportunities
Even more confusing are the 570 odd subject combinations that have made selection of learning areas in the various pathways a torrid affair. Why can’t these subjects be merged into a few coherent combinations? Why, for instance, must there be building construction, woodwork, electricity, power mechanics, physics, metal work instead of making it a single subject combination? The only explanation would be that the drafters of the curriculum intended children to differentiate into these pathways early - converting teenagers into mechanics, electrical technicians and engineers, carpenters and masons.
As job opportunities shrink, artificial intelligence takes effect and the world becomes interconnected, the worker of the future must be someone who can adapt to various situations. A student passionate about mathematics and drama, for instance, should not be forced to choose one and drop the other. Such a choice diminishes their full potential. Agriculture and history, may not directly influence a profession, but they contribute richly to your worldview, decision-making, and value system. This is the kind of wholeness we should aspire to develop in our learners.
Dr Paul Kalanithi, who in his dying days wrote the magnum opus When Breath Becomes Air, was a neurosurgeon who studied bachelors and master’s degrees in arts, and a PhD in literature. By the time he transitioned into medicine, his view was not only narrowed to the operating table, but to what medicine means beyond the patient to the community and the world.
It is because of this broad approach that when he was diagnosed with advanced cancer, he turned it into an opportunity to document his journey and thoughts on death and dying. He was not simply a neurosurgeon, he was a thinker who understood social philosophy and the transcendent nature of medicine.
The CBE system is not cast in stone. There is still room to gather ideas quickly and make corrections before we bring forth a generation that is tunnel visioned and constrained by these choices.
Dr Bundi Karau (MD, PhD) is a senior lecturer in Internal Medicine at Kenya Methodist University, and is currently a fellow in Neurology at St John’s Medical College, Bangalore, India