The Ministry of Education has procured more than nine million textbooks for Grade 9, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has announced.

CS Ogamba noted that 9,926,618 books have been distributed to schools with the exercise expected to be completed by the end of January 2024. "I have directed the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) to work robustly and ensure that all required textbooks and other instruction materials are available for use by our learners," he said during the release of the 2024 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination results on January 9, 2025.

This came at a time when parents and bookshop owners complained over the acute shortage of core textbooks for primary and junior secondary schools.

Grade 9 was rolled out in January 2024 with parents and other stakeholders reporting challenges in transitioning from Grade 8 to Nine, the highest level of Junior School.As part of the reforms, Grade 9 learners will be the first to use updated textbooks aligned with the rationalized curriculum.