Engaging Parents, Empowering Learners: Lessons from ALiVE’s Parental Engagement in Nurturing Life Skills and Values Across East Africa

• In Event: Whole School Approach to Nurturing Skills, Values and Community Cohesion

Proposal

Across East Africa, education systems are undergoing reform to align with competency-based curricula that emphasize life skills and values (LSV) such as problem-solving, communication, collaboration, self-awareness, and respect. These skills are increasingly recognized as central to preparing young people for lifelong learning, work, and citizenship, and for fostering more cohesive and inclusive societies. Yet, evidence consistently shows that many learners demonstrate only emerging or consolidating proficiency in LSV, with very few attaining mastery (ALiVE, 2022). This raises an urgent question: How can schools, families, and communities work together to bridge this gap and ensure learners are equipped with the competencies needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world?
The Action for Life Skills and Values in East Africa (ALiVE) initiative has sought to answer this question by piloting parental and community engagement approaches across Tanzania Mainland, Zanzibar, and Uganda. This paper synthesizes findings from interventions implemented between 2022 and 2025 that aimed to strengthen parental understanding of LSV, create platforms for school-community collaboration, and empower families as co-educators. In Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar, ALiVE implemented structured parental engagement sessions in six districts, combining pre- and post-surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and testimonies. The results showed dramatic improvements in parents’ understanding of life skills and values—from 12% at baseline to 87% post-intervention—alongside increased confidence in modeling these skills at home and supporting children’s socio-emotional development.
In Uganda, ALiVE and partners convened ten weekly parental and community dialogues in 12 communities across six districts. These forums brought together parents, teachers, and community leaders to reflect on life skills gaps, co-create strategies for nurturing competencies, and model practical problem-solving processes. This was particularly significant given ALiVE assessment findings that only 3% of Ugandan learners demonstrated full proficiency in problem-solving. The dialogues fostered local ownership, generated context-specific strategies, and empowered parents to see themselves as active contributors to their children’s holistic learning.
Three cross-cutting lessons emerge from this work. First, parental engagement is a powerful bridge between policy and practice: by equipping parents with the knowledge and confidence to support life skills at home, education reforms become embedded in daily life rather than confined to classrooms. Second, sustainability requires embedding parental engagement within existing community structures such as Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs), strengthening local champions, and leveraging media for outreach. Third, addressing gendered barriers is essential: in all contexts, initiatives like Girls’ Clubs and mentorship from Senior Woman Teachers demonstrated the potential of parental and community engagement to expand girls’ voice, leadership, and agency.
This synthesis contributes to global discourse on how parental and community engagement can position education as a driver of social justice, inclusion, and peacebuilding. Through safe and collaborative spaces where parents, teachers, and communities collectively nurture life skills and values, education systems can equip young people not only to succeed academically but also to participate meaningfully in building cohesive, equitable, and sustainable societies.

Authors

• Faridah Mubiru Nassereka, Uwezo Uganda

• Daniel Fedrick Marandu, UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM