By Roy Hezron
Thousands of unemployed P1 and Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers will find it rough as the government will not cater for their upgrading programme. The programme which will take nine months and three months for teaching practice, will involve P1 teachers upgrading to Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) while ECDE teachers upgrading to Diploma in Early Childhood Teacher Education (DECTE).
According to an advert placed by the Ministry of Education in one of the local dailies concerning the upgrade programme, the teachers will be required to pay the fees stipulated in the admission letter which will come with other requirements.
Applicants with valid P1 and ECDE certificates who are registered by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will be considered for the upgrade programme, which will be fully residential and whose application started on July 29, 2021.
The advert also stated that employed teachers will have to wait a little bit longer for the school calendar to normalize, before benefiting from the school-based upgrading programme.
According to school calendars released by former Principal Secretary of Education Dr. Belio Kipsang’ on December 3, 2020, the traditional January-December school calendar is expected to resume in January 2024.
The resolution of coming up with an upgrading programme came after it emerged that no teacher will be registered or employed by TSC in future without a diploma.
Dr. Reuben Nthamburi Director Quality Assurance and Standards prepared a framework on entry requirements to the teaching profession which required teachers who have certificates in ECDE, Primary Teacher Education (PTE), and Diploma in Teacher Education (DTE) to have Post Training Certificate (PTC) to be certified for teaching the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).
According to the Commission, PTC will involve teachers being taken through CBC Learning areas and Pedagogy, 21st century principles and practices of teacher education, andragogy and Lifelong Learning Assessment, action research and inclusivity. Other areas to be covered under the PTC include coaching and mentorship, identification as well as nurturing of learner potential.
During the nine month upgrading programme, teachers will also be instructed on Blending Content and Pedagogy Micro teaching, Practicum Supervision and Assessment Reflective Teaching and Pedagogical and Reasoning.
Only 1,400 applicants qualified to join DPTE and DECDE in June this year. They were distributed to six various Public Teacher Training Colleges: Machakos, Thogoto Kiambu, Shanzu, Egoji, Baringo, and Migori.
The second intake of trainee teachers to Public Diploma Primary Teachers College (DPTC) that was to take place in July this year was postponed to a later date, with the Ministry stating that the process will proceed after necessary logistics were completed.
A total of 24 Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs) which had expected to receive students in the second intake will have to wait for those who will be shortlisted to join the upgrade programme in September this year.
Chairperson of Kenya Teachers College Principals Association (KTCPA) Saul Baraza who is also the Principal at St. Paul Kibabii Diploma Teachers Training College urged those interested in the upgrading programme to apply in large numbers.
“We are optimistic that there will be many applicants because I believe that having a diploma will be prerequisite for them to be employed by TSC,” said Mr. Baraza.
He also encouraged them to update their skills so that they are compliant with the current curriculum.
TSC has been conducting in-service training of teachers since the CBC was rolled out. The commission has a budget of Sh1 billion for teacher capacity development and targets to train 180,000 teachers on CBC and 23,000 school administrators in the 2021/2022 financial year.
The Commission has not trained secondary school teachers on CBC although they are expected to receive the first class in January 2023.
The Government had earlier on suspended training of primary teachers in order to phase out P1 certificate courses in TTCs and allow time for development of a curriculum to teach the new diploma course.
According to the CBC taskforce, Pre-Service Competency Based Teacher Education (CBTE) will provide the education sector with a valuable opportunity to train teachers on the CBC approach.
For effective implementation of the curriculum, the Taskforce recommended that the Education ministry ensures all tutors in pre-service teacher education training colleges are inducted on effective interpretation and implementation of the teacher education curriculum framework and designs.
