How we map the CBC curriculum

1. Source documents

All prerequisite edges are derived from the official 2025 CBC Curriculum Designs published by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD). Concept nodes map to specific learning outcomes (LOs) extracted from these documents.

2. Prerequisite detection

We use a two-stage LLM pipeline to detect prerequisite relationships between learning outcomes:

  • Propose stage (deepseek-v4-flash): scans pairs of LOs within the same strand and proposes candidate prereq relationships with a rationale.
  • Verify stage (deepseek-v4-pro): reviews each proposal and confirms or rejects based on whether the earlier outcome is genuinely required to understand the later one.

3. Graph structure

  • Nodes represent learning outcomes. Each node encodes: grade, strand, sub-strand, bloom level, concept, and assessment criteria.
  • Edges are directed prerequisite links. prereq_within edges connect outcomes within the same strand; prereq_across edges connect outcomes across different strands.
  • Bloom's taxonomy is used to classify the cognitive level of each outcome (Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, Create).

4. Gateway concepts

A gateway concept is a learning outcome whose mastery unlocks a disproportionately large number of downstream outcomes. These are the top ~10% of nodes by downstream reach — the number of LOs that depend on it directly or transitively.

Gateway concepts are the highest-leverage intervention points: if a student masters a gateway concept, they unlock access to many subsequent topics.

5. Performance integration

Live performance data is pulled from school assessment systems via the Kuze API. Class-level aggregate scores are mapped to CBC performance bands:

  • EE (Exceeding Expectation) → Secure: ≥80%
  • ME (Meeting Expectation) → Developing: 50–79%
  • AE (Approaching Expectation) → Approaching: 30–49%
  • BE (Below Expectation) → At-risk: <30%

The dashboard uses plain-English tier labels (Secure, Developing, Approaching, At-risk) for readability; they map 1:1 to official CBC bands.

6. Limitations

  • Edges are LLM-detected, not authored by curriculum experts. False positives and false negatives are possible.
  • Prerequisite detection is currently limited to Grade 4–6 CBC subjects (math, English, social studies, science, Kiswahili).
  • Performance data coverage depends on school reporting cadence. Some schools and subjects may show stale or missing data.