Grade 10 School-Based Assessment October 2026: The Pioneer Calendar Schools Cannot Miss

Operational playbook · Grade 10 · October 2026

The first Grade 10 written SBA tools under CBE senior school land on the CBA portal from 5 October. Scores must be uploaded by 23 October. Here is the calendar, the subject clusters, the principal’s login path, and the evidence habits pioneer schools cannot improvise.

Selection season told families where Grade 10 learners would sit. October tells schools what those learners will be asked to do on paper and on screen. According to KNEC circular reporting now in school hands, the first Grade 10 School-Based Assessment written tests under CBE/CBC senior school follow a hard national window: tools become available on the CBA portal cba.knec.ac.ke from 5 October 2026, and all learner scores must be uploaded by 23 October 2026. The same access and upload dates apply across subject clusters. That is the spine of this playbook.

This is not another explainer about Grade 10 selection pathways. That story has been told. This is the operational month: who logs in, who downloads, who administers, who scores, who uploads, what to do with colour-image tools, and what evidence to keep when a parent — or an auditor — asks how a score was born.

The calendar — write it on the staffroom board

• From 5 October 2026 — SBA tools available on the CBA portal for download.
• 5–23 October 2026 — schools administer, score, and prepare uploads.
• By 23 October 2026 — all learner scores uploaded.
• Across clusters — STEM, Social Sciences, and Arts & Sports share the same access and upload dates.

Eighteen days is not luxurious once you subtract weekends, power cuts, toner crises, and the teacher who is also on KNEC item-writing training. Start the download the day tools appear. Do not wait for a “calm week.” Calm weeks are a rumour in Term 3.

Who does what — a clean division of labour

Principals log into the CBA portal with the institutional username and password. An OTP goes to the registered phone. If the account is locked, use the portal’s forgot-password path. Do not borrow another school’s credentials. Do not paste the password into a departmental WhatsApp “for convenience.”

Principals download the tools. Subject teachers administer them, score learner work, and upload scores as the school’s workflow assigns. A user manual sits on the portal — read it before inventing a local ritual.

HODs own subject quality: timetable slots, room booking, colour printing or device loading, moderation of borderline scripts, and a folder of evidence that would survive a question from the county office.

Parents need a one-paragraph letter: dates, that this is school-based assessment for Grade 10 under CBE, that scores will be uploaded nationally, and that panic tuition sold as “SBA leakage” is a scam. They do not need a PDF of every tool.

Subject clusters on the October tools

STEM: Core Mathematics, Essential Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Computer Studies, Home Science, Agriculture, Electricity.

Social Sciences: CRE, HRE, IRE, Business Studies, History & Citizenship, Geography.

Arts & Sports: Sports & Recreation; Music and Dance.

Use the lists as a staffing map. If your school offers a subject on that list, assume a tool is coming for the learners taking it. If a subject teacher is on leave, the HOD’s job is a named substitute before 5 October — not a speech about understaffing on 22 October.

Colour-image tools and devices

Some tools use colour images. The instruction from circular reporting is practical: print in colour or load the tools on school digital devices. A greyscale photocopy that flattens a key visual is not “close enough.” It is a distorted assessment.

Inventory now:

• Which subjects are likely to need colour?
• How many colour pages can the school printer actually finish in a day?
• Which labs or classrooms have working devices with charged batteries and offline copies if the network dies mid-session?
• Who stores the master PDF so every class gets the same version?

Boarding schools should plan evening charging the way they plan prep. Day schools should not assume learners can “just use their phones” unless the school has a written, supervised device policy that matches the tool’s integrity rules.

Portal logistics without mythology

1. Confirm the institutional username still works. Do this in the last week of September, not on the morning of 5 October.
2. Confirm the registered phone can receive SMS. If the number belongs to a transferred principal, fix it through the proper channel before tools drop.
3. On or after 5 October, download tools and the user manual.
4. Brief subject teachers the same day: timetable, rooms, materials, integrity rules, scoring sheets.
5. Administer and score with two adults in the room wherever numbers allow — one to lead, one to witness.
6. Upload learner scores by 23 October. Then retain records and evidence.

If the portal rejects a batch, screenshot the error, note the time, and retry with a calmer connection. Do not rebuild scores from memory because “the system ate them.” Your evidence folder is the backup brain.

Evidence retention — what “keep records” means in a real cupboard

Retain enough that a fair adult could reconstruct how a score was produced:

• The version of the tool used (filename, download date).
• Class lists and attendance for the sitting.
• Scored scripts or digital responses, as the tool requires.
• Marking guides and any moderation notes for borderline cases.
• Upload confirmation screens or receipts from the portal.

Store them the way you would store a national examination’s local records: labelled, dated, locked. Pioneer year curiosity is high. Curiosity without paperwork becomes a rumour that a school “invented marks.”

Integrity habits for a first senior-school SBA

School-based does not mean casual. Learners should not photograph tools for the county WhatsApp. Teachers should not “help” a pioneer class into a score the tool did not earn. Parents should not pay for leaked PDFs. The point of SBA in CBE is repeated, authentic evidence — not a miniature national exam with miniature malpractice.

If a tool’s conditions say supervised sitting, supervise. If it allows open reference in a controlled way, control the reference. Read the manual. Local creativity that contradicts the manual is not innovation. It is contamination.

What principals should tell the BOM in one page

1. Dates: tools from 5 October; uploads by 23 October.
2. Portal owner and backup phone.
3. Colour/device budget for image-heavy tools.
4. Staffing gaps by cluster, with named cover.
5. Evidence storage plan.
6. A reminder that this is assessment operations, not a reopening of selection fights.

What parents should actually do

• Protect sleep and attendance between 5 and 23 October.
• Ask the school when each subject’s SBA sitting is — not for the PDF.
• Ignore sellers of “original Grade 10 SBA.”
• Ask how feedback will return to the learner after scoring, because SBA is supposed to teach as well as judge.

A screenshot checklist for the deputy’s clipboard

• Institutional login tested; OTP phone alive.
• Forgot-password path known if lockout happens.
• Tools downloaded from 5 October; manual read.
• Subject teachers briefed by cluster.
• Colour print or device plan confirmed.
• Administration timetable published inside the school.
• Scoring and moderation roles named.
• Uploads completed by 23 October.
• Evidence packed, labelled, locked.
• Parent note sent without feeding panic.

Power, toner and the unglamorous risks

October failures rarely start with pedagogy. They start with a dead inverter, a printer that only prints pink, and a computer lab whose “working machines” are four. Build a boring contingency list:

• Alternative room with light if the usual lab trips.
• Pre-printed colour packs for the two subjects most likely to need images, stored sealed until the sitting.
• A paper scoring path if a device dies mid-session, aligned to whatever the user manual allows.
• A second staff member who knows the portal upload screens, in case the principal is at a county meeting on the 22nd.

None of that is glamorous. All of it is why some schools will finish on 18 October and others will still be arguing with a spinner on the evening of the 23rd.

Learners with special needs and access arrangements

Pioneer does not mean “ignore access.” If a Grade 10 learner already has documented support arrangements in school, HODs should ask early how those arrangements sit with each SBA tool. Do not invent a parallel paper. Do not quietly drop the learner from the upload. Read the portal manual and escalate through the school’s special-needs lead before the sitting, not after a score is missing.

How this sits beside item-writing training and invigilation

Some of your strongest subject teachers may also be applying for KNEC item-writing training that runs through late October. Do not discover that collision on the morning a Chemistry SBA is due. Map the adults. If a teacher must train online and administer an SBA in the same fortnight, the HOD’s job is a written split of duties, not a hope that energy is infinite.

Bottom line

Pioneer Grade 10 written SBA is a short national window with long local consequences. Tools arrive on the CBA portal from 5 October 2026; scores must be up by 23 October; clusters share the calendar; principals own institutional login and OTP; teachers administer and score; colour tools need colour or devices; evidence must outlive the upload. Run it like a serious school month — because for this cohort, it is the first time senior-school CBA asks the whole country to watch the same fortnight.