Collaborative research to drive education systems transformation for a breadth of skills

• In Event: Bridging the evidence gap: from global demands to local realities

Proposal

In today's dynamic world, a breadth of skills enables individuals to adapt, innovate, and thrive across diverse environments and challenges. According to the Future of Jobs Report 2025, 69% of surveyed employers identified analytical thinking as a core workforce skill, followed closely by resilience, flexibility, agility (67%), and leadership and social influence (61%). By contrast, only 21% of employers ranked reading, writing, and mathematics as a core skill (World Economic Forum, 2024). Employers also indicated a strong preference for creative thinking, motivation, and self-awareness, highlighting the need for employees to have a balanced skill set that includes cognitive, interpersonal, and self-management abilities. To meet these workforce demands, education systems must evolve beyond narrow delivery methods to offer diverse learning opportunities that foster a well-rounded, adaptable skill set in learners. In 2023, the Center for Universal Education convened a network of education stakeholders across 10 countries through the Network for Education Systems Transformation (NEST) to conduct research to examine opportunities provided by education systems for children and youth to learn what matters. The central research question guiding the Network is “How well are education systems creating opportunities for children and young people to learn what matters?” In 2024, Dignitas embarked on a study to understand how the Kenyan education system is creating opportunities for students to acquire the seven core competencies.

The research, co-designed with Kenya Education Management Institute, was conducted in 30 schools incorporating a mixed methods design to collect diverse perspectives from different education ecosystem actors at national, local and community levels. Findings revealed that while teachers recognize the necessary pedagogical skills necessary to develop the seven core competencies, challenges such as limited learning resources, inadequate infrastructure and varying levels of pedagogical understanding hinder effective development of these competencies. The research also uncovered significant implementation challenges around resourcing, teacher preparation and low parental engagement. Uneven distribution of learning materials and limited access to digital tools, continue to create inequitable learning environments. The research highlighted the importance of collaboration among education actors in fostering a supportive learning environment, among other recommendations.

Following data collection, Dignitas convened a series of dissemination meetings that brought together education ecosystem actors to interrogate the findings and deliberate on actionable ways to strengthen commitment, build capacity, and foster cohesion for the effective implementation of CBE. These engagements have contributed to shifts in mindsets, practices and power dynamics particularly informational and interpretative. Consequently, Dignitas has formed local advisory groups comprising of all education actors to continue using evidence, sharing expertise and aligning resources to drive education systems transformation towards breadth of skills. These dialogues have shown that evidence, when shared inclusively, has the power to shift mindsets, reshape practices, and rebalance power within the education ecosystem.

Authors

• Nancy Gikandi, Dignitas

• Nganga Kibandi, DIGNITAS LIMITED