Governor Nadhif Jama of Garissa County has called on the Ministry of Education in particular and the government as a whole to reduce the entry grades to Teachers Training Colleges (TTC).
Talking to farmers and farming stakeholders at Farmers Training College (FTC) in Garissa town, the said that since the vast arid county had a huge shortage of teachers, it was imperative that the government reduced entry grades into TTC.
“Given that the great county of Garissa has understaffing of locals in schools at all levels, we have to seek for ways of filling in the missing link , by reducing the college entry grades to D+ because the current grades are too high for most of our students who have sat for KCSE,’’ the Governor appealed.
Interestingly, Jamah is not the first one to make the call for reduction of grades to TTCs. In the past, during her tenure as Education Cabinet Secretary, Amina Mohamed gave in to demands of reducing the entry grade to D+.
According to Esir Hussein, an analyst based in Garissa, the performance does not auger well with other professions, saying that Garissa Referral Hospital boasts of top local medical doctors and surgeons
“If locals can qualify to be doctors and surgeons, how come D+ qualification to teacher training colleges has becomes such a hurdle,’’ asks Hussein.
He submits the bottom-line lies in enticing more youth to enroll in the noble profession of teaching and not reducing TTC entry grade to D+.
Hussein says since the arid volatile north eastern region has walked admirable strides in the educational field its laughable what kind of products will tutors with D+ qualification produce.
By Amoto Ndiewo
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