Purpose The creation of sound school-family-community partnerships is being widely acknowledged as it strengthens school programs, family practices, student learning and behavior, as well as development. Active participation of parents and communities in the school tends to reduce the traditional unidirectional accountability of teachers as a sole party responsible for learners’ success. Furthermore, such collaboration is said to cultivate new hope about schools and education, especially among rural communities. However, key stakeholders in education claimed that school-family-community partnerships were weak in primary schools in Kakamega County, Kenya (Ministry of Education (MOE), 2010). The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This study was designed to generate relevant empirical evidence. The study was guided by the Social Capital Theory (Field, 2003; Horvat et al., 2003; Coleman, 1994; Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992) whose central thesis is that social networks are a valuable asset, as interaction enables people to build communities, commit themselves to each other, and knit the social fabric. Using stratified random sampling, a sample of 361 primary school teachers in 34 schools drawn from a population of 8,964 teachers in 848 primary schools, cutting across the 12 districts in the county, was involved in the study. A questionnaire was developed and used to collect the teachers’ views of school-family-community partnership practices in the schools. The data generated were analyzed and presented by means of such descriptive statistics as frequencies, percentages, and the mean. Findings The findings revealed gaps with respect to collaboration among schools, families, and the community as the key focus in this study. Results indicated that the school-family-community partnerships in the county remained at a transactional rather than a transformational level. In light of the findings, relevant policy recommendations were proposed to improve practice, with particular attention to providing meaningful professional learning as well as desirable student outcomes. Originality/value This is one of the largest county-level studies in Kenya directly addressing teacher-family partnerships and illuminating the ways in which schools can build internal capacity for effective family engagement.

This study was set to establish the impact of domestic labour on students' academic achievement in mixed day secondary schools in Kisii Central District, Kenya and formulate appropriate policy recommendations. A total of 119 boys and 100 girls were randomly selected from 14 mixed day secondary schools to participate in the study. Additionally, 14 parents and 14 teachers were purposively included. Interview schedules and questionnaires were used to gather relevant data. Holmes (1965) problem-solving approach, a scientific method of inquiry in comparative education, was used as a benchmark while formulating the relevant policy recommendations to mitigate against the involvement of students in domestic labour. The findings associated boys' and girls' engagement in domestic labour to weak academic achievement. In a bid to address the negative impact of domestic labour on students in mixed day secondary schools, the study provides the following policy recommendations: reducing the domestic workload, educating parents and the community on the need to attend and participate in civic affairs, offering tuition in the morning and evening, conducting guidance and counseling to the affected students, equipping mixed day secondary schools with the appropriate teaching and learning resources, providing lunch to students in schools and combining efforts to fight poverty.

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.

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As a multidisciplinary process, Adult and Continuing Education (ACE) is meant to foster efficient lifelong learning throughout life. To achieve this, it should be geared towards providing knowledge, skills as well as attitudes that ensure equal opportunities to life, meeting the needs of individuals of all ages so as to understand the world and the changes being experienced. In a bid to attain a newly industrialized status, Kenya's Vision 2030 development plan endeavours to develop the relevant human resource base through, among others, ACE. However, the provision of ACE in Kenya faces such challenges as inappropriate learning environment, inadequate instructional materials and the inability to balance career and family demands. This is partly due to inept leadership, non-adherence to the relevant policy guidelines and pieces of legislation. In this paper, it is asserted that in order to achieve the aims of ACE, embracing transformative leadership is paramount. Thus, this piece of work is informed by the theory of transformational leadership which lays emphasis on how leaders, in various fields, can actually impact and or transform their subjects positively, and vice versa. In addition to exploring the policy and legislative frameworks concerning the provision of ACE in Kenya, this paper provides some intervention measures to the outstanding challenges.