By Amoto Ndiewo
Tutors of grade 1, 2 and 3 are to undergo Tusome Early Grade Reading Activity which swings around English and Swahili Literacy.
The Ministry of Education sent the SMS message to targeted teachers and said that training will include all teachers who teach lower grades in public schools.
The Tusome program is partnership between the government of Kenya through the Ministry of Education and USAID.
Its technical approach utilizes the research –driven learning materials, teaching methodologies that are proven. It also relies on an innovative feedback based on tables and monitoring system which is geared to improve literacy of 7.8 million pupils by the year 2021.
According to the Ministry of Education records, the current primary school enrolment stands at 10.4 million children in both public and private schools.
This fast growing enrolment in primary schools is largely attributed to the introduction of Free Primary Education by the Kenyan government in 2002 and other interventions like population growth, awareness and access to schools.
This enrolment in primary schools puts many parts Kenya, away from the pastoralist areas on track to achieve the Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) commitments 2015.
According to Tusome protocols, the sub counties are to issue dates and venues for training teachers in their respective zones before schools reopen.
Tusome will pay the teachers attending the workshop between Sh2, 300 and 2,865 per day for the workshops which takes two days. Earlier on teachers were given Tusome schemes of work, lesson plans as well as teaching materials.
However, despite such handsome allowances some teachers have expressed doubts at the marriage between CBC and Tusome.
‘’The implementation of CBC will make Tusome program difficult,’’ said a teacher anonymously.
