By Allan Kibet
The Teacher Professional Development (TPD) course for Kenyan teachers that was scheduled for April may not go as planned after Members of Parliament have today called for an immediate stop until such a time when all education stakeholders are consulted.
The MPs have also demanded the training fees of Sh6,000 to be catered for by the government and the institutions picked to train the teachers in the refresher course be expanded.
These were revealed in a report by the National Assembly Education Committee tabled before the house on 3Rd March 2022.
“If the Commission is not restrained from implementing the TPD programme, the rights of teachers and stakeholders under Article 232(1)(d) of the constitution stand the risk of being prejudiced,” the Committee Chairperson Florence Mutua said.
While moving the motion to suspend the TPD programme, MPs said that Teachers Service Commission (TSC) should have done extensive planning and public participation before rolling out the course.
“The TSC should conduct extensive public participation as required and take to account the views of teachers, trade unions and other stakeholders with a view of building consensus on the programme,” the MPs said.
A petition had earlier been tabled by Emuhaya MP Omboko Milemba who is also the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) before the house on 5Th October 2021.
The MP had cited isues on the cost of the programme, the selection of the institutions to offer the refresher course and on the matter of public participation.
On the other hand, Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) had lamented that the fee of the programme was high for the teachers and should by all means be taken care of by the government.
