UNDERSTANDING AND TRANSFORMING THE FORM 2 CLASS OF 2025.
Let’s engage on an urgent and emerging concern affecting nearly every school in our country the worrying trend of behaviour, performance, and discipline among the Form 2 Class of 2025. It is a conversation we can no longer postpone because the signs are clear and the stakes are high.
Who Are the Form 2 Class of 2025?
The Form 2 class of 2025 is not just any cohort.
They are:
1. Adolescents in the heart of an identity crisis, aged between 13–15 years.Remember some of them are underage and only here because their parents made them skip classes to escape the CBC curriculum
2. The last class of the 8:4:4 system, currently being phased out. There are no Form 1s behind them. They have become the academic “last borns” a position that subconsciously breeds uncertainty, anxiety, and detachment.
3. A class caught between systems, watching the world move forward with CBC reforms while they feel stuck in a system on its way out.
This unique context is shaping how these learners behave, perceive themselves, and engage with school life.
Emerging Trends and Concerns
Across institutions, we are observing the following:
Academic Concerns
1. Significant drop in performance
2. Lack of academic ownership and seriousness
3. Increased absenteeism and disinterest in learning
Discipline and Behaviour
1. Growing levels of defiance, disrespect, and impulsiveness
2. Susceptibility to peer pressure and negative influence
3. Involvement in risky behaviour (early sexual activity, substance use, truancy)
Psychosocial Aspects
1. Emotional instability and mood swings
2. Low self-esteem and identity confusion
3. Over-reliance on mobile phones, TikTok, and social media
Root Causes Behind These Behaviours
It is important to avoid quick judgments. The challenges facing this class are layered and complex:
1. Developmental Stage: They are in adolescence a time marked by emotional turbulence, resistance to authority, and experimentation.
2. Systemic Shift: Being the last class of 8:4:4, with no juniors behind them, they carry the psychological burden of being “left behind.”
3. Technological Disruption: Constant exposure to screens and the internet is rewiring attention spans, emotional regulation, and social behavior.
4. Family Struggles: Many come from homes marked by absentee parents, economic stress, or unresolved trauma.
5. School Gaps: Overstretched teachers, weak counseling systems, and lack of structured mentorship leave these students unsupervised and unsupported.
Consequences If Unchecked
If no intervention is made, we risk the following:
1. A wasted cohort lost potential and weak KCSE outcomes
2. Rising rates of school dropouts and indiscipline cases
3. Erosion of school culture and staff morale
Long-term socio-emotional damage to the learners
1. Poor transitions to universities, colleges, and tertiary institutions.
Strategic Response: What Needs to Be Done
1. For Teachers
a) Rebuild individual connections with learners.
b) Apply differentiated instruction to re-engage diverse learners.
c) Use formative assessment to identify at-risk students early.
d) Partner with the Guidance & Counseling department for regular interventions.
2. For School Leadership
a) Institutionalize Class Mentorship Programs.
b) Invest in capacity-building for teachers on adolescent psychology.
c) Conduct termly motivation and career forums for Form 2s.
d) Enforce consistent, fair, and firm discipline structures.
3. For Parents
a) Monitor children’s academic and emotional well-being consistently.
b) Attend school meetings and follow up beyond report cards.
c) Reduce absentee parenting by prioritizing quality time and open conversations.
d) Work collaboratively with schools to reinforce values taught at home.
4. For Education Stakeholders
a) Provide resources for psychosocial support and mentorship programs.
b) Support digital literacy campaigns targeting responsible use of media.
c) Fund school-based counselling initiatives and mentorship retreats.
d) Integrate community support structures like churches and youth mentors.
A Caution and a Call
Let us not label this generation as “difficult” or “hopeless.” Labels create self-fulfilling prophecies. Instead, let’s see this as a call to action. A warning light. A challenge to the adults responsible for shaping these learners.
Let us remember:
A child who is not
embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.
The Form 2 Class of 2025 is crying for that embrace through their silence, rebellion, withdrawal, or performance. Let us be the ones to answer that cry with empathy, structure, mentorship, and action.
Conclusion
If we choose to ignore this class, we will reap the consequences in a few years academically, socially, and morally. But if we respond now deliberately, strategically, and consistently the Form 2 Class of 2025 can become a testimony of what transformational mentorship can do.
Let us save them now, so we don’t have to rebuild them later.
Thank you.