Implementation of Competency-Based Education in Developing Nations: The Kenyan Context

Competency-Based Education (CBE) has emerged globally as a reform strategy aimed at shifting education systems from examination-oriented learning toward the development of practical skills, values, and learner agency. In developing nations, CBE is often introduced to address persistent concerns regarding graduate employability, skills mismatch, and limited relevance of schooling to real-life contexts. In Kenya, the adoption of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) represents one of the most ambitious education reforms since independence. Despite its strong policy foundation, concerns persist regarding the quality, consistency, and equity of CBC implementation across schools. This article presents a desk review of peer-reviewed literature, policy documents, and national evaluation reports to examine CBC implementation in Kenya through an evaluation lens aligned to monitoring frameworks advanced by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development and the Ministry of Education. Using the evaluation domains of inputs, processes, and learner outcomes, the review finds that while CBC is firmly institutionalized at policy level, its classroom realization remains uneven, shaped by teacher preparedness, assessment demands, resource constraints, and leadership capacity. The article concludes that CBC implementation in Kenya is progressive but fragile and recommends sustained, framework-aligned monitoring and equity-sensitive support to strengthen reform outcomes. Keywords: Competency-Based Education; Competency-Based Curriculum; Curriculum Reform, Evaluation