Kenya's education sector is undergoing significant transformation through the implementation of the Competency-Based Education (CBE) framework, anchored in the recommendations of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reform (PWPER) and the Sessional Paper No. 1 of 2024.
As the sector prepares for the FY 2026/27 budget cycle, several key reforms are underway:
Basic Education Reforms
- The Basic Education Bill, 2024 seeks to align the system with CBE, strengthen quality assurance, rationalise school governance, and streamline bursary and scholarship administration
- Public secondary schools are being re-categorised from National, Extra-county, County, and Sub-county into career pathways (STEM, Social Science, Arts and Sports Science) at Senior School level
- KICD has rationalised learning areas from 9 to 7 at Lower Primary, 12 to 8 at Upper Primary, and 14 to 9 at Junior School to address content overload
Tertiary Education and Funding
- The Tertiary Education Placement and Funding Bill, 2024 consolidates HELB, Universities Fund, TVET Funding Board, and KUCCPS into a single authority handling student placement, loans, scholarships, and career guidance
- The Variable Scholarship and Loans Funding (VSLF) model is being implemented to ensure equitable distribution of financial aid
- In FY 2024/25, 52,542 trainees received Government of Kenya scholarships, while 415,335 undergraduate students were awarded loans
Scholarship and Bursary Coordination
- A key reform priority is developing a legal framework to streamline the management and coordination of scholarships and bursaries, which are currently channelled through multiple agencies leading to duplication and poor coordination
- The government aims to establish a Minimum Essential Package (MEP) capitation for Basic Education institutions
Budget Allocation
- The education sector has been allocated recurrent resources amounting to KShs 1,095,987 million in FY 2026/27, rising to KShs 1,202,323 million by FY 2028/29
COPLER Foundation's ERUDITIO pillar supports these reforms through our education programmes, scholarship initiatives, and leadership development work. We are particularly encouraged by efforts to streamline scholarship coordination, which will benefit vulnerable and needy learners in communities like Butere.
For information about our scholarship programmes or to support a student, visit our Programmes page or contact us at COPLER Center, Butere.