Re-Imagining Education from the Ground Up:

At the 2026 National Conference of the Kenya Comprehensive Schools Heads Association (KECSHA), thousands of school leaders, policymakers and education practitioners gathered under a timely theme:

“Re-imagining the Comprehensive School of the Future: Strengthening Leadership, Systems, Skills, and Values for Sustainable Quality Education.”

 

As a sponsor and strategic participant, the Regional Education Learning Initiative (RELI) Africa came to shape the blueprint for how transformation happens, not simply to occupy space. Showing up was necessary, non-negotiable and urgent, and this year RELI Africa did so in force. Eleven of our 30 network members in Kenya descended on the Sheikh Zayed School grounds to engage more than 15,000 school heads registered for the conference. Our engagement included:

• Moderated panel sessions with publishers of teaching and learning materials in a competency-based context;
• Presentations of data and evidence on school management and accountability;
• Sessions on managing learner and teacher wellbeing; and
• Master classes on social-emotional learning, building numeracy in the foundational grades, and education innovation labs, among others.

Our contribution was critical at this juncture for three reasons.

Re-imagining education is a hollow exercise if children reach Grade 4 without basic literacy and numeracy. Foundational learning is the springboard for academic success, critical thinking, lifelong learning and economic participation. Through its network of civil society organizations across East Africa, RELI Africa has consistently championed evidence-driven, scalable interventions in this area. Comprehensive schools, which combine primary and junior secondary levels, face heightened administrative and pedagogical demands. Their heads need practical, field-tested solutions that leave no child behind in the early years.

That is the purpose of the master classes delivered by Mizizi/ALiVE with CEMASTEA.

By taking centre stage at KECSHA 2026, RELI Africa bridged the gap between curriculum policy and classroom reality. It advocated targeted assessment, remedial learning support and teacher empowerment in the foundational grades, and continuous professional development as a long-term process rather than a one-off event.

A master class in session, facilitated by Mizizi Elimu Africa in collaboration with KICD and CEMASTEA.

A re-imagined education system must ask a fundamental question: What kind of human beings are we nurturing?

Through the Action for Life Skills and Values in East Africa (ALiVE) initiative, RELI Africa has redefined how holistic education is viewed. ALiVE has pioneered contextualized, evidence-based tools to assess and nurture core life skills among young people, including problem-solving, self-awareness, collaboration and respect. The ALiVE master class at KECSHA drew strong interest from heads of institutions (HOIs) committed to the Competency-Based Education (CBE) vision of producing Engaged, Empowered and Ethical citizens, popularly identified as the “Three E’s of CBE.” That aligns directly with the conference call for “Strengthening Skills and Values,” a mandate RELI Africa meets with years of research, contextualized assessment frameworks and practical toolkits:

• From theory to practice: We help educators turn values and life skills from abstract syllabus goals into measurable, everyday school culture.
• Empowering school leaders: Comprehensive school heads are more than administrators; they are culture builders and a key resource for curriculum delivery and support. ALiVE initiative equip them to build school environments where empathy, integrity and resilience are modelled daily.

Systems change does not happen in isolation. It requires shared evidence, peer learning and direct engagement with institutional leaders. KECSHA represents the school heads on the front lines of Kenya’s Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) implementation.

RELI Africa’s collaborative ecosystem model ensures that data from rural classrooms, informal settlements and marginalized communities informs policy debates. As a sponsor and strategic partner at KECSHA 2026, we put civil society evidence in front of the school heads who shape administrative and pedagogical agendas.