I have been a scholar at the ALiVE Academy since 2021. I joined the academy to deepen my understanding of life skills and values — how they work, why they matter, and how they can be applied both within and beyond education systems. Most importantly, I wanted to learn how these skills can be measured to track progress. Through the Academy, I have gained a deeper understanding of the nature and characteristics of these skills, their importance, and how they cut across different areas of life. I have also had a chance to apply what I have learned by working with education systems in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda — exploring how these skills can be integrated, nurtured, and assessed in schools.  One of my favourite parts of the academy is the learning approach: we learn by doing, and mistakes are seen as valuable steps in the learning process. I am grateful to continue building my capacity and hope to support the next generation in gaining these essential skills through education. @devotha_mlay

At the heart of the ALiVE Academy is Learning! The sessions combine both theory and practice to provide a holistic understanding of assessment and its context. While the theory aspect deepens participants’ understanding of the concepts, the practical sessions nurture capacities to produce assessment tools. Participants engage in intentional peer learning where they explore associated areas of interest to enhance understanding as well as the collegial spirit of the academy. The paragraphs below highlight the academy scholars’ voices through the different cohorts: I am David Alelah, and I am privileged to be part of the first cohort of the ALiVE Academy, which I joined in 2021. As one of the scholars selected from Kenya, I’ve been working with a diverse group of education practitioners from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania mainland, and Zanzibar. Together we develop, pilot, and refine tools for assessing life skills and values among learners in East Africa. The Academy has been a rich learning journey, combining deep theoretical discussions with hands-on practice, including household-based assessments for adolescents in 2022 and the development of classroom-based tools for younger learners. The sessions have expanded my understanding of curriculum integration, cultural adaptation, and how to make assessments both practical and meaningful. Being part of this pioneering cohort has not only strengthened my technical capacity in education assessment and data analysis but also enhanced my leadership and collaboration skills. I’m especially proud of the strong network of like-minded professionals we have built across the region, and the opportunity to co-create solutions that are African-led and contextually relevant. Personally, the Academy has helped me grow in confidence, deepen my self-awareness, and better appreciate the power of regional collaboration. It has been both a professional and personal milestone — one that continues to shape how I approach my work in education and my contribution to building a more learner-centred system in East Africa. @alelahdavid2

I have been a member of the ALiVE Academy since its inception. I have also been behind the scenes helping to coordinate and organize the Academy. I have learned quite a lot through the process, both in terms of the importance of the ALiVE Academy as a platform to nurture and grow experts in the field. I appreciate the rich information that has come out of the ALiVE academy, particularly helping to understand the unique nature and characteristics of life skills, and the deeper understanding of each of the life skills in terms of their dimensionality and the various ways that they can be observed, but also how they can be embedded within education systems.  We are lucky to have been part of the ALiVE Academy, for it is the ultimate class for those looking to enrich their capacities in matters life skills and values, especially within the East African context.   Khadija Ahmed Shariff is ALiVE Co-PI and Executive Director, Milele Zanzibar Foundation @kashariff

Professor Esther Care, of the University of Melbourne, serves as the lead trainer for the ALiVE Academy, working closely with ALiVE leadership to shape and guide the overall training programme. She began by mentoring a select cohort of eight experts who were trained as Master Trainers and now play a central role in designing and delivering capacity building sessions across the region. Increasingly members of the Academy will co-facilitate learning sessions drawing on their local experience. In the peer learning sessions, interested members facilitate topics they have researched. Where necessary and relevant, other teachers will be sourced based on expertise. Professor Esther Care is a renowned researcher who works with government and non-government organisations on education reforms, with a focus on 21st century skills and assessment. She is currently working with RELI Africa in East Africa on assessment of life skills through the ALiVE initiative. Pro. Care serves as the technical lead at the ALiVE Academy. This is one among many of her global roles that span decades. Her expertise lies in psycho-educational assessment, expanding to the mainstream education sector over the past decade. She is the author of several books focussed on 21st century skills, as well as writer of many academic articles on psycho-educational assessment, formative assessment, education system reform, and collaborative problem solving. We caught up with Prof. Care amid her global trips and here is the flow of that conversation: What is your experience around life skills and values? I first dealt with issues around learning that was not associated most strongly with cognitive functioning when I worked in careers education. During that time, I learned about the importance of interests, values and attitudes, all which impact life choices. Later in my academic career I specialised in the measurement of “difficult to measure” constructs which include many of those that we identify as social emotional learning, and which are associated with concepts of personality and temperament. In addition, in the 1990s I explored, researched and practiced around values education. This was brought about by my work with large industry employers who were looking to identify what values among workers would best suit the work environment. Then, from around 2011 onward, I developed expertise in the assessment of 21st century skills which include both cognitive and social emotional constructs. This was all against the background of my academic and practical expertise in assessment more widely. How important are life skills and values to young people, especially adolescents? From my experience in the careers and employment space, it is essential that employers look at competencies of their workforce beyond their technical skills or their cognitive skills. Other aspects such as how you want to contribute to society or how you see your place in that society are very important to workforce satisfaction. So, it is important that we enable adolescents to understand themselves, their values, and their attitudes if they are to reach fulfilment in the workforce and their lives more generally. What is your role in the ALiVE Academy? I am the lead facilitator for the Academy. In that role my major goal is to ensure that participants develop their understanding and expertise sufficiently that they can work in this area independently, that they understand what they do not know and need to find out more about, and that they are able to build the capacity of others. How relevant is the ALiVE Academy in the space of life skills and values? The Academy is critical in the context of integration of life skills and values into the four educational jurisdictions across Kenya, Tanzania mainland, Zanzibar and Uganda. This competency-based education initiative that we have seen across the world in the last decade is not an easy thing to implement.  Part of the reason for this is that in the education space, we tend to be experts in just one sector, for example, in assessment or in curriculum or in pedagogy. When we introduce concepts of life skills and values, these are cross-curricular and that means that we need to think much more holistically about how the education system integrates the principles and goals. Note that in the Academy we originally focussed on assessment. As the relevant jurisdictions shifted to think more deeply about integration, so also the Academy has increasingly been exploring this issue. Paramount has been the need to be aware of the multiple approaches to integration, and how we link across the three different sectors (assessment, curriculum, and pedagogy) and how we ensure understanding of the implications of integration of these constructs into the daily classroom. How are the sessions in the academy structured? The ALiVE Academy has taken slightly different forms across its lifespan. But overall it has consisted of four to five days of intensive in-person workshops, during which time there is a mix of instructional sessions, exercises, critical discussion, and practical assignments. In the first quarter of this year, we have met virtually and have discovered some of the pitfalls of virtual learning, which include issues of timetabling and availability. What is the progress of the Academy? The degree of expertise of Academy participants has significantly increased. Unfortunately, over time, we have lost a couple of participants, which is a loss not only for their own development, but also for the group’s development. One of the things that we endeavour to do is to rely on peer-based learning. For example, each participant engages in a critical review of their peers’ presentation or understanding of the issues. This means that all can develop their confidence in a non-threatening environment and at the same time, acquire tools and materials that they can use for their jurisdictional work while supporting partners. How crucial is the ALiVE Academy within the East African Context? As is clear from the diversity of requests from the education jurisdictions in which ALiVE is functioning, ALiVE is seen as a group that has a key understanding of the multiple aspects of competency-based education integration with a focus on life

The Action for Life Skills and Values in East Africa  (ALiVE) seeks to generate evidence on life skills and values and use this evidence to engage in public policy reforms, and strengthen local capacities in life skills competences in Kenya, Tanzania mainland, Uganda and Zanzibar. ALiVE responds to the need for RELI Africa members and the education systems to develop assessments of life skills and values within the East African context and collate evidence on what works in nurturing these competences. This is intended to grow the local expertise of RELI Africa members. As the RELI Africa members increase their understanding of these competences, there will be growth of local expertise with hands-on skills in nurturing and measuring complex skills and supporting education systems to better integrate assessments in curricula for improved learning outcomes. The current focus of the ALiVE programme is on enhancing the capacity of the key government education departments to integrate, nurture and assess life skills and values in the national education systems for a wider system shift. This is achieved by collaboratively developing contextualized classroom-based assessments tools for generating evidence-based learning progressions for prioritized competences and supporting the implementation of Values-based Education (VbE) using the Whole School Approach (WSA). The evidence generated will be crucial for developing and trying out interventions for improved education practices and for public policy advocacy ALiVE focuses on three interlinked outcome areas: System shift: Evidence used to inform policy and practice for assessing and nurturing life skills and values. Assessment shift: Assessment capacities for life skills and values strengthened. Learning hub: Evidence on life skills and values enriches internal and external learning. The ALiVE Academy Vision The ALiVE Academy was established during Phase I of the ALiVE programme (2020 to 2023), as a strategic initiative to strengthen national capacities for life skills and values assessment across Kenya, Tanzania (Mainland and Zanzibar), and Uganda. Drawing on a multidisciplinary community of 47 local experts from government, academia, and civil society, the Academy played a central role in co-developing contextualized household-based assessment tools for adolescents aged 13–17 years. While the initial academy developed contextualized assessment measures for skills and values, the Academy was not just about creating assessments; it was about growing local capacity and ownership so that education systems in the region could better nurture the full potential of every young person. Over time, the ALiVE Academy has grown into a vibrant hub for nurturing local expertise and advancing public understanding of life skills and values. It has played a key role in strengthening the capacity of assessment institutions and education systems to integrate, support, and measure these critical competencies. At its core, the Academy supports a broader vision: the establishment of a homegrown African assessment centre, rooted in East Africa and led by local knowledge and leadership. A past session of the ALiVE Academy The training content is directly informed by the mapping and capacity enhancement plans developed under Outcome 1 (System Shift).  Key focus areas include adapting the ALiVE tool for younger learners (6-12 years), transitioning its application from household to classroom settings, and expanding its reach across multiple languages and contexts. The work also involves developing additional tasks and items for the existing competences, as well as designing tools for new competences and values as per country priorities. The second dimension of the academy is finalising the training packages and acquisition of intellectual property rights to safeguard and formalize the tools and resources developed through the ALiVE Initiative. In parallel, the Academy is drawing lessons from established global assessment centres to inform strategies for long term institutionalization and sustainability beyond 2025. To ensure continuity and local ownership, the Academy is pursuing a dual strategy: deepening the capacity of the current cohort of trainers while expanding participation to include additional professionals from partner institutions. The ALiVE Academy has from time to time admitted interested teachers, curriculum development and assessment experts as well as teacher trainers from the jurisdiction in which ALiVE works (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar). Additionally, the Academy aims to invite identified and interested members from universities and researchers in each participating jurisdiction as well as members of the RELI Africa/VaLi communities. This approach aims to build a wider pool of experts equipped to lead the life skills and values assessment agenda. ALiVE Academy courses are provided free of charge for the participants who are invited to participate in the various cohorts. Participants are also supported with relevant costs associated with travel, accommodation and other logistics necessary when members are meeting for hybrid or face to face workshops, or when required to go to the field to develop, test or pilot tools. By Dr. Samuel Mutweleli, Regional Assessment Shift Manager – ALiVE @MMutweleli

 ALiVE ACADEMY (AA) is a capacity-building arm of the Action for Life Skills and Values in East Africa (ALiVE) initiative. AA is designed as a growth space for local experts developing assessments of life skills and values. The ultimate aim of the AA is to produce a critical mass of experts who can equip assessment institutes, education systems and the education community at large, with the capacities needed to nurture and foster these skills and competencies in children and youth across the region and continent. What is Involved? AA is a space for learning, capacity building, and production of tools and tasks (resources) to be open for use by interested stakeholders. AA is composed of four main cohorts: Cohort 1: A framing series which include exploring and digging deeper into understanding the formation of different frameworks; the purpose of focusing on skills; matters of assessment of skills as part of daily life and as part of curriculum; approaches to developing and adapting tasks; and considerations of the ethical and educational implications of assessment of life skills and values. Cohort 2: School/classroom based assessments: This cohort takes AA members through the process of developmentor adaptation of assessment tasks and tools for use in the school/classroom. Assessments are developed for both theyounger (6-12) and older (13 to 17) age groups as requested by the participating jurisdiction include education systems in Uganda,Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar. Cohort 3: Household based assessments: This cohort involves AA members generating additional assessment tasks for the 13 to 17 age group specific to the skills developed in ALiVE Phase 1, namely problem solving,collaboration, self-awareness and respect. AA members are divided by country groups to focus on an assigned skill or skills. The teams would then share their developed tools to test and administrate pilots of all skills in each country to allow for regional use. The development of more tasks for this cohort allows for the tools to be used to assess and score individual adolescents rather than for producing large-scale results for comparison across different categories. Cohort 4: Data analysis/statistical methods: This cohort involves taking participants through the analysis process of data generated from young people responding to the assessment tasks, once tools have been piloted (with data generated from cohort 2 and 3). Members from each jurisdiction participates in conducting analysis of the data gathered from their respective locations. Who is Involved? All interested members of ALiVE Phase 1 technical team from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are invited to participate in thecohorts of the ALiVE ACADEMY. Enrollment in each cohort is contingent on engagement in previous cohorts. TheAA also invites interested teachers, curriculum development and assessment experts as well as teacher trainers fromthe education systems ALiVE is working in. Additionally, AA invites identified and interested members from University and Teacher Training Colleges in each participating jurisdiction as well as members of the RELI/VALI communities. What Format? Given the complexity of conducting training across different countries and at times, different time zones, AA modules across all cohorts will are delivered in a hybrid fashion.While many of the theoretical or framing sessions are done virtually, the more practical and hands on sessions will are delivered on site, face to face (or hybrid) to facilitate participation. This is particularly true for the school/classroom based assessments where task development and validation involve field work activities in classrooms. When / How Often?  AA cohorts are conducted at different intervals throughout the year starting September 2023 up to December 2025. Cohort 1 is delivered on a regular basis (likely monthly) with different topics covered based on topics of interest or relevance to the participants.Cohort 2 took place over a period of between 6-12 months depending on spacing of workshops and when the respective systems needed to finalize tools. Cohort 3 took place starting in October 2023 and required a period no less than 3 months to complete; Cohort 3 is repeated in 2024-2025 should more tasks be needed for the repository. Cohort 4 follows cohort 2 and 3 and took place over a period of no less than 3 months. What is required of participants? Participants are expected to be available for all scheduled sessions, and to complete individual and group tasks and activities between sessions. The ALiVE capacity-building is based on collaborative learning and so relies on inputs from all participants. Information about each cohort and its estimated commitment will be available for potential participants prior to their enrolment so that a realistic evaluation of inputs can be made by each individual. What are the Associated Costs? AA courses are provided free of charge for those participants invited to participate in the various cohorts. Participants are also supported with relevant costs associated with travel, accommodation and other logistics necessary when members are meeting for hybrid/face to face workshops or when required to go to the field to develop, test or pilot tools. Who Teaches the Courses? Most of the courses in the ALiVE ACADEMY are delivered by Professor Esther Care from the University of Melbourne in the first instance. Increasingly members of the Academy co-facilitate learning sessions drawing on their local experience. In the peer learning sessions, interested members facilitates topics they have researched. Where necessary and relevant, other teachers will be sourced based on area of expertise What is Awarded? AA provides all participants with certificates of completion of the respective cohort they completed. Participants may be awarded certificates for more than one cohort. Certificates, in the first instance, will be awarded by RELI Africa.