What Grade 10 learners will miss from the old form one experience

This week, Grade 10 learners across Kenya are being admitted into senior school, marking a milestone moment under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).

In many ways, the scenes look familiar, boxes stacked with new supplies, mattresses tied with rope, anxious parents, excited learners, and the familiar up-and-down of reporting day.

The rituals that have long defined secondary school admission remain intact.

Yet beneath these familiar scenes lies a fundamentally different transition. While the physical experience may resemble the form one admissions many Kenyans remember, the philosophy guiding this new intake is markedly different.

The shift to Grade 10 senior school is not just a change in class, it represents a rethinking of purpose, pressure, and progression.

This contrast invites a deeper reflection: what aspects of the old form one experience are today’s learners likely to miss, and what does that say about how Kenya’s education system is evolving?

Form one admission was abrupt and unforgiving. Students left primary school and were instantly immersed in a rigid, high-pressure environment with strict rules, unfamiliar peers, and demanding expectations.

Grade 10 admission, by contrast, is deliberately structured to be smoother. Learners transition with guidance, counselling, and a clearer understanding of what lies ahead.

While this protects students emotionally, it may reduce the urgency that once pushed learners to quickly take responsibility for themselves.

However, it is worth acknowledging that the old shock system did not build resilience for everyone. For some students, it created fear, anxiety, and long-term disengagement from learning rather than character.

Under 8-4-4, form one admission was a unifying national moment. KCPE results dominated headlines, parents compared school placements, and entire cohorts followed the same syllabus nationwide.

Whether one joined a national, extra-county, or day school, the academic journey was largely similar.

CBC senior school disrupts this uniformity. Learners now enter different pathways, STEM, Arts and Sports Science, or Social Sciences, meaning students of the same age may be pursuing entirely different learning experiences.

While this reduces the shared struggle many adults remember fondly, it introduces relevance. Students are no longer forced into identical academic moulds regardless of ability or interest.

Form one learning began at full speed. Heavy textbooks, frequent exams, and early ranking defined the experience. From the first term, students understood that performance mattered.

Grade 10 prioritises competency development over early examination pressure. Learning is more gradual, reflective, and skills-oriented.

Form one admission carried social weight. Being placed in a prestigious school shaped confidence, networks, and future opportunities. School identity became part of personal identity.

CBC senior schools place less emphasis on hierarchy and more on pathway alignment. While this may reduce the social prestige some valued, it also prevents early labeling of students as failures based on a single exam outcome at age 13 or 14.

The loss of prestige may feel uncomfortable, but it challenges a system that tied self-worth too closely to school ranking rather than individual growth.

Some elements of the old system are better left behind. Corporal punishment, excessive cramming, and a narrow definition of success created high achievers, but also many disillusioned learners whose talents lay outside academics.

CBC attempts to broaden success by recognising creativity, technical skills, and social intelligence.

Grade 10 learners may miss the dramatic initiation, shared hardship, and clear ranking that defined Form one. But they are gaining something equally important: choice, relevance, and earlier self-awareness.

The real test is not whether CBC feels familiar, but whether Kenya is ready to redefine success beyond exam scores. Progress rarely preserves nostalgia and education reform is no exception.