By Faridah Nassereka | 4th February 2025
As the curtains closed in on 2024, the Action for Life Skills and Values in East Africa (ALiVE) initiative convened a research co-creation workshop on December 6th. The one-day workshop aimed to consolidate collaborative efforts in generating evidence for integrating life skills and values into Uganda’s Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). The core aim of this workshop was to validate, revise, and contextualise an earlier developed research agenda, ensuring it is robust and contextual to Uganda. The workshop, hosted in partnership with Kyambogo University, was the third in a series of co-creation events held within the region. It brought together diverse stakeholders central to the CBC delivery, including academics, researchers, officials from the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) including Regional Education Learning Initiative – Africa (RELI Africa) - Uganda partners.
ALiVE structured this research while cognisant of curriculum reforms that are an occurrence across East Africa, the significant strides made in CBC delivery including capacity enhancement for teachers, pedagogical and assessment reforms and the challenges in implementation that have continued to manifest including inadequacy of resources and a continued focus and attention on high stake examinations. ALiVE’s collaborative research journey will focus on addressing some of these challenges by uncovering what works in CBC delivery, why, and how, through undertaking qualitative and randomised control trials.
This collaborative effort further reflects ALiVE’s commitment to CBC undertakings, particularly in integrating life skills and values, while amplifying the need for them to be assessed and nurtured. By addressing gaps, capturing best practices, and identifying scalable solutions, the initiative seeks to reinforce efforts for the successful implementation of the CBC and teacher education in life skills and values.
