Designing Blended Continuous Professional Development for School Leaders at Scale

This practice brief presents lessons from the Implementing National Curriculum Reforms through App-based Learning for School Leaders in Secondary Education (INCREASE) programme (2022–2026), which strengthened the capacity of school leaders in Kenya to lead the implementation of Competency-Based Education (CBE). It looks at how a blended continuous professional development (CPD) approach was developed and adapted to meet school leaders’ needs, combining in-person training with self-paced learning through a mobile app and online check-ins. Through this approach, the programme reached over 1,000 school leaders in 21 counties.

Drawing on the programme’s implementation experience and monitoring and evaluation findings, the brief sets out five principles for designing blended CPD that meets school leaders’ professional needs and can be delivered at scale. It also considers how school leadership development can influence classroom practice and what it takes to sustain blended CPD within government systems.

The brief is intended for the Ministry of Education, education policymakers, CPD providers and development partners in Kenya and the wider region. It offers practical lessons for those designing new CPD programmes or reviewing existing ones for scale-up and long-term institutionalisation.