Kenya's national curriculum is now officially called Competency-Based Education — CBE. The previous name, Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), was in use from 2017 until the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development formalized the rename. For schools, teachers, and publishers, the change is not cosmetic. It signals a shift in emphasis from the curriculum as a document to education as an outcome-driven process.
What Changed
The name changed. The framework did not. CBE Kenya retains the same learning areas, strands, and sub-strands that schools have been implementing since 2017. Pre-Primary, Lower Primary, Upper Primary, Junior Secondary, and Senior School pathways are unchanged. The KICD's six learning areas remain the organizing structure.
What changed is the framing. CBC placed the curriculum at the centre. CBE places the learner and their demonstrated competencies at the centre. The language shift is intentional.
Why the Name Matters for Schools
For school administrators, the rename creates an immediate practical issue: any system that still uses 'CBC' in its official documents, reports, or software is out of step with KICD's current terminology. This matters for:
– Schemes of Work: HODs now expect SoW documents to use CBE terminology. A teacher submitting a Scheme of Work that still labels the framework as CBC risks being flagged during internal quality reviews. – Assessment reports: Parent-facing reports and term summaries that reference CBC are technically incorrect. As CBE language becomes standard in official KICD communications, parent confusion around mismatched terminology will increase. – Learning Management Systems: A school's digital platform should use CBE strand and sub-strand labels throughout. Platforms that have not updated their curriculum taxonomy are presenting outdated information to teachers and students.
What It Means for Teachers
For classroom teachers, the day-to-day impact is smaller than the administrative impact. Lesson delivery does not change. The key shifts are in documentation: lesson plans, Schemes of Work, and assessment records should all reference CBE rather than CBC.
Teachers at schools using a digital LMS should check whether their platform has updated its curriculum labels. If a teacher is assigning a Grade 5 Mathematics lesson under a 'CBC-tagged' strand, the content may still be correct, but the reporting and documentation will use the wrong framework name.
What It Means for Publishers
Publishers selling CBE-aligned content into the Kenyan market need to audit their catalogue. Content tagged as 'CBC-aligned' needs to be relabelled as 'CBE-aligned'. Publishers who update early capture the SEO and credibility advantage as schools search for CBE-specific materials.
Publishers on Elymica's marketplace can update their content taxonomy through the publisher portal. Elymica's curriculum taxonomy uses CBE-KE labelling throughout.
How to Check Your Platform
Three quick checks to confirm your school's digital platform is CBE-aligned:
- Search the platform for 'CBC'. If it appears in curriculum labels, strand names, or assessment templates, the platform has not updated.
- Check the assessment reporting language. Does it describe learner outcomes using CBE competency levels or older percentage-based grading?
- Ask your Schemes of Work tool. If it generates documents with 'CBC' in the framework header, those documents are technically incorrect for 2024 and beyond.
Elymica updated all curriculum taxonomy, assessment language, and platform documentation to CBE when KICD formalized the rename.
Written by Elymica Editorial · Editorial Team
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