CBTE Must Make ‘Not Yet’ a Learning Path, Not a Hidden Exit

Competence-based education makes a demanding promise: learners progress because they can demonstrate what faithful practice requires, not merely because a timetable has ended. That promise becomes most revealing when the evidence is insufficient. What happens after an assessor says, ‘not yet proficient’ shows whether the programme is genuinely formative or simply selective.

A responsible judgement can protect congregations, learners and the credibility of an award. It can also become a hidden exit. The learner may receive a score without an explanation, be required to repeat an entire unit, pay indefinite fees, depend upon the same conflicted mentor or disappear from institutional records. In spiritual and character formation, an educational decision can be misheard as a verdict upon calling, faith or worth.

CBTE means Competency-Based Theological Education. For Bible colleges and church-based ministerial formation, the focus here is a contextual, mentored and competence-demonstration model integrating knowing, being and doing. It remains distinct from Kenya’s general occupational Competency-Based Education and Training, or CBET. Its theological character should make the pathway after ‘not yet’ more truthful, humane and accountable—not less.

On 8 September, the Kenya National Qualifications Authority published an account of a 1 September consultation with university leaders on implementation of the Kenya National Qualifications Framework and the National Qualifications Database. KNQA reported that 22 per cent of universities were registered as qualification-awarding institutions, 12 per cent…