10th U6+ Consortium of African Universities International Conference

Kenya's transition from the 8-4-4 system to Competency-Based Education (CBE) in 2017 represents one of sub-Saharan Africa's most ambitious curriculum reforms. The pivotal shift from Grade 6 (Upper Primary) to Grade 7 (Junior Secondary School, JSS) demands that learners navigate increased academic demands, specialist teaching and competency-based assessment within environments originally designed for primary education. Despite this transition's significance, existing literature often addresses macro-level policy shifts or infrastructural deficits in isolation. This integrative review addresses this gap by synthesizing empirical research, policy documents and grey literature from 2017 to 2026. The review employed narrative synthesis, reflexive thematic analysis and framework analysis. Findings reveal severe system readiness deficits undermining CBE's transformative vision. Infrastructure deficiencies indicated that public primary school possessed science few laboratories at JSS rollout, less than 40% had adequate classroom space, and 87.5% of public JSS institutions lacked ICT tools. The teacher shortage exceeds 72,000 against a requirement of 149,350, with 87.8% of deployed teachers lacking subject expertise and 88.7% receiving inadequate administrative support. Combined capitation shortfalls of KSh 117 billion over four years, delayed disbursements, and cost-shifting to parents further destabilize implementation. Learner adaptation was challenged by cognitive overload from a 60% increase in learning areas, the social limbo created by domiciling adolescents in primary schools where 91% of Grade 7 learners report environments unconducive for JSS and modest KJSEA outcomes with 75% of the pioneer cohort scoring approaching expectation. Assessment practices inconsistently implemented reproduce 8-4-4 examination culture within the CBE framework. Equity gaps are widening through public-private divides in infrastructure and teacher quality, urban-rural digital disparities, and concentrated underfunding in marginalized regions. Policy instability from 8-4-4 to CBC to CBE and from secondary to primary school domiciling has eroded implementation fidelity. The review concludes that this transition represents ambitious reform launched without necessary preconditions. Six policy recommendations address financing, teacher deployment, infrastructure, assessment, governance, and equity. Future research directions included learner voice research and cost-effectiveness analysis.