In a world where education systems are increasingly called upon to cultivate not only academic excellence but also ethical, empathetic, and socially responsible citizens, Values-Based Education (VbE) has emerged as a transformative imperative. Kenya’s ongoing efforts to mainstream VbE through its Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) offer valuable insights into both the promise and challenges of systemic integration of values into education. Recent findings from a VbE baseline survey conducted across several counties including Isiolo, Tharaka Nithi, Taita Taveta, and Kwale, paint a complex picture. While many learners demonstrated values such as respect and teamwork in daily school life, a majority struggled to define or articulate what values are or how they relate to education. In most schools visited, there was no formal structure for nurturing values. Instead, values-related practices were often informal, fragmented, and dependent on individual teacher initiative or co-curricular activities such as sports and clubs. Despite the clear enthusiasm among educators and stakeholders, the survey exposed a persistent gap in structured VbE implementation. Many schools lacked resources, teacher training, and system-level frameworks to embed values consistently. In some special needs institutions, physical infrastructure challenges and limited inclusivity further complicated efforts to nurture values equitably. Yet amidst these gaps, there are pockets of promise. Some schools demonstrated organic approaches to character formation, teachers modelling values through daily interactions, schools encouraging environmental stewardship and community service, and student clubs fostering responsibility and collaboration. In a few cases, talking walls (visual displays of key moral messages) were used to reinforce school-wide commitment to values like peace, responsibility, and social justice. To address these issues, stakeholders emphasized the importance of adopting the Whole School Approach (WSA), an evidence-based strategy that embeds values across every aspect of school life, from classroom instruction to peer relationships and leadership culture. Regular monitoring, peer learning forums, and investment in visual learning tools like value charts and displays were also recommended to strengthen long-term impact. Officials from the Ministry of Education, KICD staff, Zizi Afrique Foundation staff at the Taita Taveta County TSC Director’s office. These findings highlight a critical opportunity: the need for deliberate, system-wide capacity building to move from incidental to intentional practice of values-based education. This includes equipping teachers, school leaders, and education officials with the tools, frameworks, and pedagogical strategies to integrate values into both academic instruction and school culture meaningfully. Ultimately, the Kenyan experience affirms a core insight familiar to VbE experts worldwide: education systems thrive when values are not only taught but lived. With strategic investment, consistent training, and sustained collaboration, schools can become powerful ecosystems of character formation—shaping the kind of citizens our societies urgently need. Clarifying the CBC-aligned values i.e. respect, responsibility, integrity, love, peace, social justice, and patriotism. This included definitions, indicators, and strategies for integration. Strengthening school-wide practices, such as value-based leadership, positive school climate, and co-curricular programming. Elevating learner agency, encouraging students to model, question, and reflect on moral issues in peer settings. Mobilizing stakeholders, recognizing parents, support staff, and community members as active agents in reinforcing values beyond the classroom. Notably, schools that engaged families and communities in organizing cultural festivals, tree-planting events and service-learning projects created impactful opportunities for learners to embody and experience shared values in real-world contexts.  For resources on values-based education, please visit https://kicd.ac.ke/cbc-materials/values-based-education-materials/ @biftukarayu, @enockimani