CBTE Must Turn ‘Not Yet’ into a Supported Learning Path

Competency-Based Theological Education begins with a demanding promise: progression should follow demonstrated competence rather than attendance, elapsed time or completed assignments alone. International literature commonly calls this Competency-Based Theological Education, abbreviated CBTE. This article uses CBTE principally for contextual, mentored formation in Bible colleges and churches, and keeps it distinct from Kenya's general occupational Competency-Based Education and Training, commonly abbreviated CBET.

The promise becomes ethically serious when a learner does not yet meet a standard. A conventional programme can record a mark and move on. CBTE must explain what the evidence shows, what remains unproven, what learning is required, who will support it, what reassessment will cost and how the learner can challenge an unfair decision.

The phrase not yet competent should name a temporary evidential state, not become a softer label for indefinite exclusion. If a programme celebrates flexible progression but has no designed route from difficulty to renewed demonstration, it has transferred the hardest educational work to the learner. The credibility of CBTE is revealed not only by whom it certifies, but by how it treats the person who is not yet ready.

A peer-reviewed study published on 7 October 2026 analysed 921,795 student-course enrolment records across four successive assessment policies at a public university in Ecuador. The policies moved from undifferentiated coursework and examinations, through a single high-stakes final examination, to structures…