Setting Up Your School's Curriculum and Grade Structure

Configure your curriculum, grade levels, streams, subjects, academic years, and grading scales so every module in Elimu Bora has the right foundation.

Before you can record attendance, run assessments, or generate report cards, Elimu Bora needs to know how your school is organised academically. This page walks you through setting up everything from your curriculum choice down to your grading scale — in the order that makes sense.

Choosing your curriculum

Elimu Bora supports two Kenyan curricula:

• CBC (Competency-Based Curriculum) — for schools following the current national framework
• 8-4-4 — for schools still operating under the traditional system

Your curriculum choice sits at the top of the academic hierarchy and determines how grade levels and subjects are structured throughout the system.

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Academic hierarchy

Everything in Elimu Bora flows from a single hierarchy:

Curriculum → Curriculum Stage → Grade Level → Grade Stream → Students

For example: CBC → Primary → Grade 5 → Grade 5 - Stream A → Students

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Initial setup flow

1. Select your curriculum

   Go to Settings → Curriculum and confirm which curriculum your school uses — CBC or 8-4-4. This is set during onboarding, but your administrator can update it here if needed.

2. Create grade levels

   Go to Settings → Grade Levels & Streams → Grade Levels and add each year group your school has.

   • For CBC schools: Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3 … Grade 9 (or whichever levels are active)
   • For 8-4-4 schools: Standard 1 through Standard 8 for primary, Form 1 through Form 4 for secondary

   Each grade level belongs to a curriculum stage (e.g., Primary or Secondary). Fill in the name exactly as it should appear on timetables and report cards.

3. Create grade streams

   Go to Settings → Grade Levels & Streams → Grade Streams and add the class streams for each grade level.

   A stream is a named division of a grade level — for example, Grade 5 - Stream A and Grade 5 - Stream B. If your school has only one class per grade, create a single stream (e.g., “Grade 5 - Blue”).

   Each stream requires:

   • A name
   • The grade level it belongs to
   • A class teacher (assigned from your registered teachers)
4. Assign a class teacher to each stream

   When creating or editing a grade stream, select the teacher who is responsible for that class. This teacher will appear on registers, report cards, and timetable notifications for that stream.

5. Set up subjects

   Go to Settings → Subjects and add the subjects taught at your school. Each subject belongs to a curriculum, so make sure you select the right one.

   Once subjects exist, assign each subject to the teacher who teaches it under Settings → Teachers → [Teacher name] → Subjects.

6. Set up pathways (optional)

   If your school groups subjects into tracks or combinations — for example, a “Science Track” for students taking Biology, Chemistry, and Physics — go to Settings → Pathways and create a pathway for each grouping.

   Add the relevant subjects to each pathway, then assign students to their pathway from the student profile.

7. Create an academic year

   Go to Academics → Academic Years and create your school year. You will need:

   • A name (e.g., “2026”)
   • A start date and end date
   • A status — start with Upcoming

   When you are ready to begin the year, change the status to Active.

8. Add terms to the academic year

   Inside each academic year, create your terms (Term 1, Term 2, Term 3). Each term has a start date, end date, and its own status lifecycle: Upcoming → Active → Completed.

   Set a term to Active when it begins. Assessments, attendance registers, and invoices are automatically linked to whichever term is currently active.

9. Create grading scales

   Go to Settings → Grading Scales and define how raw scores map to grade bands.

   Create a scale (e.g., “Standard Grading Scale”), then add grade bands to it — each band needs a code (A+, A, B+…), a minimum score, and a maximum score. For example:

   Code	Min	Max
   A+	90	100
   A	75	89
   B+	65	74
   B	55	64
   C+	45	54
   C	35	44
   D	25	34
   E	0	24

   You can create multiple grading scales if different assessments use different scoring systems.

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Academic year and term constraints

Only one academic year can be Active at a time. When you activate a new year, Elimu Bora automatically marks the previous active year as Completed. Similarly, only one term can be Active within a year at any given time. Make sure you complete one term before activating the next.

The full academic year lifecycle is:

Upcoming → Active → Completed → Archived

A term follows the same path but stops at Completed — terms are not archived individually.

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Frequently asked questions

Can I have both CBC and 8-4-4 students in the same school?

Yes. Each student profile is linked to a specific curriculum. If your school is transitioning between curricula, you can have some students on CBC and others on 8-4-4 at the same time.

What happens if I forget to activate a term before creating an assessment?

Assessments and attendance registers are linked to the active term at the time of creation. If no term is active, you will not be able to create new assessments. Activate the relevant term first before proceeding.

Can I rename a grade level or stream after students are enrolled?

Yes. Renaming a grade level or stream updates its display name everywhere in the system — timetables, registers, and report cards will all reflect the new name automatically.

What is a pathway used for?

Pathways let you group subjects into tracks (e.g., “Arts Track”, “Science Track”) and enrol students into those tracks. When a student is assigned a pathway, the system knows which subjects they take, which is used when entering grades and generating report cards.