Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

According to the KICD curriculum design, the learners take 45 lessons a week with each lesson covering 40 minutes.

English, Kiswahili, Mathematics, integrated science, health education, pre-technical and pre-career, social studies, religious education, business studies, agriculture, life skills education, physical education/sports, foreign languages (German, French and Mandarin), will be introduced alongside indigenous language as an optional subject.

The subject to be made optional will be decided by a review team currently brainstorming at the institute.

"There is a team actually meeting right now at KICD looking at all learning areas in junior secondary. They are looking at which of these learning areas are still standing alone that we can put as optional," he said.

He revealed that the subjects to be made optional will greatly be influenced by the amount of resources it requires.

"When looking at which subject to make optional, there is also the question of resources. We are thinking of some of these learning areas which could be so good but which the country is not very ready now to implement in all schools," he said.

In senior secondary, Ong'ondo said the recommended changes will not affect the learning areas greatly as the CBC is yet to reach that level.

He also said the initial plan was to have seven subjects similar to recommendations by the presidential team. [Lewisd Nyaundi]

Whether that will water down the strength of some subjects, Ong'ondo said they will balance out the content as they assimilate it in the existing subjects.