NAIROBI, Kenya Feb 10 – The government has moved to overhaul Kenya’s education system after Cabinet approved and forwarded to Parliament a raft of reform Bills targeting governance, curriculum delivery, assessment, financing and teacher development.
The proposed reforms are anchored on the Constitution and the Competency-Based Education and Training framework and are drawn from recommendations by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reform.
According to the Cabinet meeting chaired by President William Ruto, the reforms aim to address inefficiencies caused by overlapping mandates among education agencies and to improve coordination and service delivery across the sector.
A key proposal is the Tertiary Education Placement and Funding Bill, 2024, which seeks to create a single authority responsible for student placement, financing and career guidance by consolidating Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), the Universities Fund, the TVET Funding Board and Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCUPS).
The Kenya National Qualifications Framework (Amendment) Bill, 2024, further seeks to clarify institutional roles by assigning the Kenya National Qualifications Authority responsibility for setting national standards, while leaving accreditation and equivalence of qualifications to existing regulators.
In the basic education sector, the Basic Education Bill, 2024, aligns the system with the Competency-Based Education structure, strengthens quality assurance, clarifies the roles of national and county governments and introduces coordinated management of bursaries and scholarships.
Cabinet also approved the Kenya National Educational Assessments Bill, 2025, which shifts assessment away from examinations toward competency-based evaluation, and amendments to the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development Act to limit its mandate and eliminate overlaps through Board restructuring.
Teacher preparation and continuous professional development are addressed under the Pre-Service Education and In-Service Training in Basic Education Bill, 2025, while the proposed Education Administrative Tribunal Bill, 2024, seeks to provide a formal avenue for resolving disputes within the education sector.
