Education stakeholders are pushing for the integration of value – based education into the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) in a bid to nurture disciplined and morally upright learners from foundational stages of education.
Mount Kenya University Founder Prof. Simon Gicharu says the initiative would promote good governance and integrity and solve the many challenges that have been bedeviling the country over the years.
Speaking during a meeting between MKU and the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) at the institution’s Main Campus in Thika yesterday, Prof. Gicharu, who also chairs the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) noted that this would help build a society that upholds integrity without the need for excessive supervision and enforcement.
During the meeting, the two institutions agreed to partner in developing and rolling out integrity and ethics courses aimed at equipping students with values of accountability, honesty and responsible leadership.
The collaboration seeks to use universities as platforms for nurturing a generation that rejects corruption and embraces ethical conduct.
MKU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Deogratius Jaganyi said the university and EACC would jointly develop an integrity course to be offered to students and extended to the wider Kenyan community adding that integrity training will be made part of university learning and student engagements.
He said the partnership will leverage the innovation, creativity and energy of young people in advancing a culture of integrity and fighting corruption through awareness campaigns, research and training programmes.
“We intend to introduce integrity as a common unit for all students in our university in a bid to produce principled, accountable and courageous leaders who will reject corruption, uphold honesty and drive positive change in society,” said Prof. Jaganyi said.
The EACC delegation, led by Vice Chairperson Dr. Monica Muiru, said the initiative would be implemented through the Kenya Integrity Leadership Forum (KILF), which targets universities as platforms for engaging young people in the fight against corruption.
The commission noted that empowering the youth with ethical values at an early stage would help reduce tolerance to corruption and dismantle the belief that integrity is a barrier to success.
By Muoki Charles
