By Amoto Ndiewo
As Kenyan MPs debate Pension Amendment Bill, they now want a draft document that will mandate the government to pay the annual refresher training fees for Teacher Professional Development (TPD).
Accordingly, each of the 340,000 tutors is required to take the mandatory professional course to enable them advance in their noble teaching career.
The TPD is divided into chapters that will be offered once a year for a fee of Sh.6, 000/. They are expected to take five modules.
The MPs in the august House Education Committee censured the TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia for failing to include the said funds as a budgetary requirement.
The MPs want the TSC boss to explain how the training fees were calculated, arguing that even school and university fees are regulated.
‘’We want to know why the TSC hasn’t factored in this money in its budget statement so that it can be an independent budget line funded by the government,’’ said Busia Women Representative Florence Mutua who chairs the education committee.
In the same breadth, the MPs asked Macharia to draft and submit a legal framework that allows the government to foot the TPD training cost. The Busia MP made the submission on the floor of the House as the MPs supported the TSC budget requirement.
The MPs contended that since all levies are set by Parliament, they had to know the formula used by the TSC to cap the TPD training fees. Against that background, Macharia said the TPD is legally enshrined in section 35(2) A of the TSC Act.
The Act says the commission requires every registered teacher to participate in career progression and professional development programmes as prescribed by regulations made under the Act.
Macharia added that regulation 49(1) mandates the commission to issue a teaching certificate to any teacher who successfully completes a professional teacher development programme.
Likewise, regulation 49(3) warns that a teacher who fails to complete the programme will have their registration certificates suspended until the teacher obtains the teaching certificate. In other words teachers are required to take the refresher course in order to keep their jobs.
The TSC chose Kenyatta University, Riara University, Mount Kenya University and Kenya Education Management Institute (KEMI) to train teachers through the TPD competitive process.
The TPD course, which is disseminated during April, August and December holidays, is delivered online and face to face with the introductory module completed online according to the plan.
While the introductory module has five chapters to be completed within a year, the first module gives teachers an overview of TPD and the Kenya Professional Teaching Standards.
KUPPET chairman Omboko Milemba called on the TSC to go back to the drawing board and submit a legal document validating the TPD programme and explain how the training fee was arrived at.
‘’They ought to make a requisition for that money,’’ said the union boss.
Although both KUPPET and KNUT are unanimous that continuous training sharpens skills, they argue that the bill ought to be footed by the employer.
‘’We are keen on ensuring that the employer foots the TPD bill or at worst cost share with the teachers as the skills benefit both the employer and employee ,’’ said Collins Oyuu, KNUT boss.
Former KNUT Secretary General and nominated MP Wilson Sossion, who sits In the Parliamentary Education Committee, also waded into the debate agreeing that the government has to foot the bill.
‘’Most tutors have struggled to raise the funds to enrol for the modules,’’ he said, arguing the programme demotivated them and must be reconsidered.
The same view was shared by Kenya National Teacher Pressure Group (KNPG) which has said teachers must oppose TPD as it is expensive.
‘In 30 years of TPD training, teachers will have used more than Sh.500,000 on transport , food and accommodation ,’’ said KNTPG Organising secretary Anne Wanyoike.
She argued it was ironic the TSC pays teachers’ salaries and at the same time slash that payment through an in-service plan against their will.
‘’What is the rationale for someone about to retire to pay a colossal sum?’’ she wondered.
Wanyoike noted that the course took place at institutions where many teachers had previously trained, yet their Diplomas, Degrees and Masters were rejected on grounds they were unrecognized.
Interestingly, TSC boss Nancy Macharia says the TPD is a stand-alone project that requires a separate budget.
