TEACHER PREPAREDNESS AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COMPETENCY-BASED EDUCATION IN PUBLIC JUNIOR SCHOOLS IN KENYA: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

Kenya introduced its competency-based junior school tier, Grades 7 to 9, from January 2023, moving millions of learners and their teachers into a new phase at speed and often within institutions not designed for it, yet how prepared junior-school teachers are to enact the reform remains poorly consolidated. This review synthesises recent evidence on teacher preparedness for competency-based education implementation in public junior schools in Kenya, drawing on comparable Kenyan and Sub-Saharan African basic-education evidence, and identifies the priority gaps for policy and future research. Following a PRISMA-informed protocol, a systematic search of education databases and publisher platforms was conducted in August 2026 for studies published between 2019 and 2026 that examined teacher preparedness or readiness in relation to competency-based education or the competency-based curriculum. Forty-seven unique records were screened, thirty-one were assessed in full text, and twenty-four studies (nineteen empirical and five reviews), each independently verified to exist, were included and synthesised thematically across seven preparedness dimensions: pre-service education, in-service training, pedagogical content knowledge, assessment literacy, resource and information and communication technology readiness, attitudes and self-efficacy, and support systems. The evidence converges on a consistent finding that teachers are inadequately prepared, most acutely in public, rural and marginalised settings. In-service retooling dominates the literature but is repeatedly described as brief, cascade-delivered and rarely followed by mentoring, while pedagogical content knowledge, assessment literacy and technology readiness are widely deficient and teacher self-efficacy and support systems emerge as significant enablers. The evidence base, though growing, is fragmented across counties and dimensions, dominated by small self-report surveys, and thin at the junior tier relative to its scale, and no prior synthesis had consolidated it. Sustained and mentored professional development, subject-specialist retooling for junior-school pathways, resourcing of public schools, and a consolidated national evidence base are the priorities the review identifies.