By Amoto Ndiewo
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has insisted that it would not lower entry grades for teachers joining training colleges across the country.
Speaking in Mombasa yesterday during the Kenya Primary Schools Heads Association’s (KEPSHA) Annual Conference, TSC Deputy Director of Staffing Antonina Lentoijoni said that the body would not lower the qualification grades for candidates seeking teaching careers in primary and secondary schools.
Despite mounting criticism, the TSC deputy director acknowledged that although the high qualification requirements were unpopular with teachers, she insisted that it would improve education standards in schools.
The deputy director revealed that teachers who do not achieve a mean grade of C+ in KSCE will not be allowed to teach in secondary schools even if they later on obtained degrees.
She further said that all secondary school teachers would be restricted to teaching subjects for which they obtained a C+ or higher grade in KSCE.
“They would only be permitted to teach subjects which the received C+ or higher grade in their KSCE Exam, this will go a long way to improve the quality of education in Kenya,’’ she said.
Several teachers walked out of the conference in protest when the Deputy Director insisted that the TSC will not negotiate on the mentioned requirements.
Without elaborating, Antonina said that the commission raised the bar to improve education quality in response to new social and societal challenges.
“The TSC has raised the entry point of teaching in the country to have the right kind of people to offer quality education to our children,’’ said Lentoijoni.
Although KNUT Secretary General Collins Oyuu suggested that primary teachers are allowed to teach grade 7 and 8 in junior secondary because several of them already have masters degrees, the new decision bars them to teach in secondary school since they obtained C- or C in KSCE.
However, the TSC Deputy Director insisted that any teacher who wishes to teach in secondary schools must now have C+ or higher grade.
The decision leaves those who obtained their degrees through diploma certificates in dilemma.
Teachers with TSC approved qualification, according to Lentoijoni are the right kind of people to ensure quality education for children.
She said the TSC has trained 28,000 teachers in the last few years to address the issues of shortages of educators.
The TSC official went on to thank the government for its continued response to the country’s teacher shortage.
“I am happy that there is at least some relief from the previous problem of acute teacher shortfall. We have embraced a new system of teacher recruitment by first engaging those who wanted to be teachers as interns who were then assigned to experienced teachers for mentorship. We will lobby for more money to recruit more teachers,” said Antonina.
In the past the TSC ignored pleas from arid northeaster leaders region who have repeatedly called on the TSC to lower entry grade for those in the teacher-scarce region. The former education CS Amina Mohamed tried the same but was overruled by a Kenyan court in the argument that the entry requirement lies with the employer, TSC.
The Deputy Director praised teachers for their dedication to their jobs. She agreed with the Education CS George Magoha that teacher attend class without being supervised.
