The Ministry of Education has reviewed the entry grades to the new Diploma Teacher Education (DTE) programme in a move that is seen to cushion the Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) from low enrollment.
Now students with a Mean Grade of C (plain) in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) will be allowed to apply for the Diploma programme in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) and Early Childhood Teacher Education (DECTE) irrespective of their grades in the clusters subjects.
This is after the Ministry removed the cluster combination which initially blocked many potential students from applying for the teaching course, which left many TTCs under enrolled since the implementation of the new requirements.
Initially, the government raised the entry from C- (minus) to C (plain) for both the courses for KCSE certificate holders, with C (plain) in English or Kiswahili, Mathematics, and any Humanity and a Science.
Students will now be required to apply through the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) which is open from today July 15, 2023 to July 28, 2023 for placement into various institutions for DPTE and DECTE.
Earlier this year, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) raised concern on the future of the country’s TTCs due to decline in enrollment occasioned by policy shift in teacher education, with the union Secretary General Collins Oyuu stating that enrollment has been adversely affected by the revised entry requirements for teacher training in TTCs.
The public Teacher Training Institutions did not admit students in 2019 and 2020 for the P1 course due to the change of policy on qualification from certificate to diploma for teaching in primary schools.
This saw the Ministry of Education order all TTCs both public and private be registered afresh to reflect their new status of training the new Diploma course in particular Primary education.
During the year under review, the public Teacher Training Institutions admitted pre-service diploma teacher trainees and those upgrading from P1 to diploma.
According to Oyuu, the current enrollment in the 34 public pre-service primary teacher training college stands at 3,922 which translate to 14.7 per cent with expected capacity being 26,650 students.
This means the total idle capacity in the pre-service primary teacher training college is 22,728 which translate to 85.3 per cent.
Oyuu further states that the current enrollment at the 3 public diploma in secondary teacher training colleges stands at 1293 which is 36 per cent, with expected capacity being 3,600 students; which implies that 2,307 which is 64 per cent capacity at these colleges lies idle.
In the new development, the formerly Certificate in Primary Teacher Education (PTE) commonly known as P1 Certificate has been renamed Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE), which is basically meant to train teachers trainees who will directly go and teach the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) after graduation.
By Education News reporter
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