ACSL leads from the front as the 1st KEMI International Conference opens in Nairobi
Nairobi, Kenya | 13th April: The African Centre for School Leadership (ACSL) took centre stage as lead sponsor, keynote speaker, moderator, and chair across five days of Kenya’s newest flagship education leadership event.
The 1st International Conference of the Kenya Education Management Institute (KEMI) opened earlier today in Nairobi, under the theme “Catalysts for Transformation: Re-inventing Leadership in a Sustainable and Inclusive Education Ecosystem.” Drawing together over 300 education leaders and policymakers, researchers, and practitioners from across Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. The five-day gathering marks a significant moment for school leadership as a continental policy priority — and the African Centre for School Leadership (ACSL) is at its heart.
As lead sponsor of the conference, ACSL’s presence extends far beyond the plenary and panel sessions to the exhibition stand. Across all five days, ACSL colleagues from partner organisations ADEA, Education Sub-Saharan Africa (ESSA), and VVOB are contributing as keynote speakers, panel moderators, lead presenters, panellists, and day facilitators — making this the most concentrated demonstration of ACSL’s convening role on school leadership and technical depth on a single platform to date.
To set the stage, Dr. Maurice Odondo, CEO of KEMI, opened the proceedings by anchoring the conference in the realities of a rapidly changing world and the need for education leadership and management to match evolving demands. “Leadership is no longer administrative; it is transformational, adaptive, and future-oriented,” he said, calling on delegates to commit to “strong, visionary, and ethical leadership as the foundation upon which sustainable and inclusive education systems are built.”
The official opening address was delivered by Dr. Elyas Abdi, Director General of the State Department for Basic Education, on behalf of Principal Secretary — Amb. Julius Bitok. Dr. Abdi called for the week to be treated as a genuine inflection point: “The future of education depends not only on policies we design, but on the leadership we demonstrate. Let this not be just another conference, but a turning point for action and impact.”
The day’s keynote was delivered virtually by Albert Nsengiyumva, Executive Secretary of ADEA and a driving force behind ACSL’s continental mandate. Drawing on the 2025 ADEA Triennale Synthesis Report and CESA 2026–2035, he set out eight pillars for transforming education leadership across Africa — from governance and financing to data systems, technology equity, and continental harmonisation — with resilience as the cross-cutting thread running through all of them.
His framing was provocative. By 2040, Africa will be home to over one billion young people of working age. “One billion minds that will either be equipped — or abandoned. One billion futures that will either flourish — or be lost.” The question he placed before delegates was not whether Africa can transform its education systems, but what governments must concretely do now.
On financing, he was direct: “Africa does not have an education financing problem. It has an education financing priority problem” — noting that median African government education spending fell from 16% to 14.5% of total expenditure between 2016 and 2022, moving further from the 20% Dakar benchmark. On equity, he painted a sharp picture of systemic failure: “A child’s chance of being taught by a skilled, supported, motivated teacher — and led by a competent, empowered principal — depends almost entirely on where that child was born. That is not an education system. That is a lottery.”
His closing injunction carried the weight of the entire address: “Africa does not need more policy documents. It needs the political will to implement what is already known...So, let’s walk the talk.“
The conference’s flagship panel discussion — Repositioning School Leadership as a Strategic Policy Driver for Education Transformation — was moderated by Shem Bodo, ADEA’s Senior Progams Officer and Senior Strategic Advisor at ACSL, bringing together voices from government, research, academia, and civil society to interrogate the persistent gap between policy and on-the-ground investment in school leadership. Panellists examined why school leadership continues to be treated as an extension of teaching in most African educational systems, rather than a distinct professional role requiring structured preparation, defined standards, and protected career pathways.
The opening day also featured the launch of the Kenya edition of the 2025 Spotlight Report Series, presented jointly by Dr. Manos Antoninis (Director, UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report), Martin Kungania (Deputy Director, Ministry of Education Kenya), and Prof. Martin Mutegi (University of Nairobi). The report makes the case that school heads must be understood not as administrators but as instructional leaders whose daily decisions are directly linked to the quality of learning in classrooms.
Day 1 was only the opening chapter. Across the remaining four days, ACSL colleagues will be active in some of the conference’s most significant sessions: On the second day, the conference’s flagship knowledge moment arrives early in the morning. Tom Vandenbosch, General Director of VVOB, delivers the Day 2 keynote — Shaping the Future of School Leadership through Professional Development. He will be followed immediately by the headline event of the conference: the formal launch and dissemination of the ACSL Continental Mapping Report on School Leadership Initiatives in Africa, to be presented by ACSL colleagues, Joyceline Kirezi and Caren Namalenya.
The School Leadership Continental Mapping Report represents the most comprehensive evidence synthesis on school leadership recently conducted on the African continent. Its findings confirm both the growing recognition of school leadership as a driver of education quality and the fragmentation, inequity, and under-institutionalisation that still characterise most systems across the continent.
Later on Day 2, Chantal Kabanda Dusabe moderates a panel on Beyond Compliance: Transforming Professional Development for School Leaders.
On the third day, ACSL’s Strategic Education Advisor on Gender and Equity, Sandrine Ishimiwe, joins a panel on Leading for Resilience: Advancing Equity and Inclusion in Education — bringing ACSL’s gender-responsive leadership agenda into one of the conference’s most substantive thematic discussions.
Day 4 will be facilitated by ACSL’s Communications and Advocacy Strategic Advisor, Chinedu Anarado, who will chair the full day’s proceedings — overseeing a packed programme that includes a panel on Digital Transformation and Innovation in School Leadership, a roundtable with heads of primary and junior schools on CBC implementation, and a panel on Financing Education Reforms: Unlocking Resources for Transformative Change, moderated by ACSL’s Policy Strategic Advisor, Mamadou Lamine Sow.
On the final day, ACSL Research Advisor, Dr. Leyla Abdullahi will moderate the panel discussion on Bridging Research and Policy: Leveraging Education Research to Transform School Leadership and Learning Outcomes. This before Tom Vandenbosh joins the other high-level officials in the closing formalities with remarks.