Education for Sustainable Development in Kenya: Rhetoric and Reality in Basic Education

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is increasingly being recognized as a critical element of education systems and facilitator of sustainable development. This is because its ultimate goal is to foster ideal teaching, learning, policies and practices needed to enhance social, economic, ecological viability and wellbeing for the present and future generations. Embracing ESD could therefore, facilitate realization of objectives of the Competence- Based Curriculum (CBC) that Kenya has rolled out. Particularly, the CBC is expected to foster acquisition of core competencies like creativity, problem-solving, and self-efficacy. But, limited understanding, inappropriate pedagogical approaches, and weak collaboration among key stakeholders are some of the challenges that face application of ESD. This paper consolidates and discusses the pertinent ESD aspects to successful implementation of the CBC in basic education in Kenya. Specifically, elucidated are the underpinning pedagogical theories and their implications, relevant legal and policy frameworks, some success stories, challenges and proposed solutions.