CBTE Must Follow Formation Beyond Graduation

A learner completes a programme, reports spiritual growth, receives strong mentor judgements and demonstrates a ministry task before assessors. The evidence matters. Yet the most consequential questions have only begun. Will the learner interpret Scripture responsibly when the familiar assessor is absent? Will character hold under authority, conflict, money and disappointment? Will pastoral practice remain safe? Will the ministry serve people well after the award has been framed and the programme has moved to a new cohort?

Competency-Based Theological Education (CBTE) rightly asks learners to demonstrate integrated knowing, being and doing. For Bible colleges and church-based ministerial formation, CBTE is principally contextual, mentored and evidence-based. Its public promise therefore extends beyond a graduation event: formation should transfer into faithful practice and remain open to correction.

CBTE remains distinct from Kenya's general occupational Competency-Based Education and Training, or CBET. It may learn from competency-based systems, but ministry competence includes theological judgement, spiritual and character formation, ecclesial responsibility and the ethical use of power. These dimensions make longitudinal evidence difficult—and make it necessary.

The Association of Theological Schools announced the availability of its 2025–26 Graduating Student Questionnaire report in its September 2026 bulletin. The survey concerns graduates’ experiences and plans across member graduate theological schools. It provides a starting point for discussing how learner feedback can inform formation assessment. ATS bulletin.

Graduation surveys can help a school…