What works in values-based education? Evidence from basic education in Kenya

Kenya’s transition to Competency-Based Education (CBE) renews emphasis on values and life skills alongside academic learning, yet little evidence exists on their integration across formal, non-formal, and informal dimensions of school life. This study examined how Values-based Education (VbE) is understood, integrated, and assessed in 16 of 79 schools in a Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development (KICD) pilot across Nairobi, Kajiado, Isiolo, and Bungoma counties. Data were collected through key informant interviews (education officers, school heads), focus group discussions (teachers and Grade 4–6 learners), and paired classroom observations of trained and untrained teachers. Participants commonly recognised core values such as love, respect, responsibility, and unity, and these were most visibly enacted in informal and non-formal school spaces: teachers modelled responsibility and integrity in 93% of observed classrooms, and learners displayed collaborative, respectful behaviour during breaks in 86% of schools. By contrast, formal lesson-level integration was less consistent, values-oriented pedagogy was observed in 89% of lessons, but structured assessment tools such as rubrics or reflective journals were used in only 29%. As a cross-sectional, purposively sampled pilot evaluation, these findings are descriptive rather than causal. The study recommends school-embedded coaching, simple standardized assessment rubrics/checklist, pragmatic resourcing, stronger parent–community partnerships, and routine monitoring with incentives for good practice to enhance reliable VbE integration at scale.