Unlocking CBE Competencies Through Critical Thinking

The current educational transformation in Kenya marks a historic shift from the exam-centric 8-4-4 system to Competency-Based Education (CBE). While designed to equip learners with 21st-century skills, its operationalisation risks a mechanical, instrumental reductionism prioritising performance metrics over profound holistic intellectual growth. This paper provides a philosophical critique of Kenya’s CBE framework, arguing that core competencies remain structurally superficial and ontologically unrealised without integrating critical thinking across disciplines. Drawing upon Immanuel Kant’s enlightenment, John Dewey’s reflective inquiry, and Jürgen Habermas’s communicative rationality, the study interrogates the epistemological assumptions underlying contemporary "competence." Methodologically, the study employs a conceptual analysis and deconstruction method, systematically interrogating the underlying epistemological assumptions within Kenya's Basic Education Curriculum Framework (BECF) to expose the tension between behavioural operationalisation and deeper philosophical implications. The objective of the study is to demonstrate that critical thinking, as a foundational meta-competence, is essential to transform the curriculum from mechanical task compliance into a vehicle for genuine epistemic agency, moral autonomy, and democratic maturity. Ultimately, the paper argues that realising CBE's liberatory promise requires educational stakeholders to prioritise deep-seated, dialogical critical inquiry over superficial task mastery.