By Roy Hezron and Macharia Wanjiru
Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) across the country can now sigh with relief after they resumed operations with a good number of students enrolling for upgrade programme from early October.
The government has also indicated that trainee teachers will now benefit from Higher Education Loans Board (HELB).
Almost 30 Public TTCs and 37 private ones have been on a break after the government scrapped off the P1 [certificate] programme for basic education teachers and revised their entry grades when the new Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) was rolled out.
The Principal Secretary in the State Department of Early Learning and Basic Education Dr. Julius Jwan revealed that recruitment of applicants for pre-service teacher training through Kenya University and College Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) will enable them to benefit from HELB just like others who enroll into other courses through the institution.
The PS was speaking during retreat of Public TTCs Principals under their association of Kenya Teachers’ College Principals Association (KTCPA) and Deans of Curriculum at the Dairy Training Institute in Naivasha early October this year,
The new policy means that Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidates can now choose to be selected for Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) or Diploma in Early Childhood Development Teacher Education (DECTE) when applying for post-secondary education training programmes.
Until then the Ministry of Education has been managing the recruitment and placement of prospective teachers into Teacher Training Colleges.
The Association’s Chairman Mr. Saul Barasa noted that TTCs management were happy that the colleges were going to be occupied after more than two and half years of not having student admissions, adding that students were also excited, telling by the huge numbers that have enrolled for the upgrade program.
“The close to 3year break have given TTC managements time to prepare the colleges in terms of basic infrastructure that was required to mount the upgrade program and other facilities that are necessary,” he said.
The one week-long retreat was meant to deliberate on Pre-Implementation of the Upgrade Program for Diploma in Primary Teacher Education and Diploma for Early Childhood Teachers Education.
Mr. Barasa, who is also the Principal of Kibabii Diploma Teachers College, said colleges were ready not only for the upgrade program but also for the regular Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) and Early Childhood Teacher Development Education (DECTDE) conceding that TTCs especially the private ones suffered immensely during the break because their main source of revenue was fees collected from students.
“TTCs get revenue in form of fees from students which was not forthcoming in the last three years meaning the colleges were only getting the grant from the Ministry of Education to maintain the facilities and pay the workers,” said Mr. Barasa.
He added that even as they prepared to fully commence the upgrade program, the teachers’ colleges were having a few challenges in terms of infrastructure and infrastructural support from the government; but expressed hopes following the Ministry of Education promise through Dr. Jwan that funding will progressively be available for colleges to upgrade their facilities
“But the college managements understand the difficult times that governments all over the world are going through and appreciate the Ministry of Education for whatever it has been able to do so far plus whatever it has promised to continue doing,” he said.
Dr. Jwan had announced during the retreat that the Ministry will be part of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) grants to be used to modernize Teacher Training Colleges.
The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) supports partner countries in building stronger and more resilient education systems to ensure that children get a quality education.
The PS said improved infrastructure in Teacher Training Colleges guarantees quality preparation of teachers who in turn ensues quality teaching and learning in schools.
“Teacher Training colleges will be part and parcel of the GPE programme,” Dr. Jwan said.
The Global Education Summit, co-hosted by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in London, raised a record US$4 billion from donors for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).
The Naivasha retreat which involved Public TTC Principals and Deans of Curriculum was meant to take them through the upgrade program’s designs and guidelines and give them capacity to implement it smoothly, observing that there were grey areas where Deans of Curriculum needed to understand to be able to interpret the curriculum and pass it on to the rest of the tutors in the institutions.
“TTCs are expected to implement the new program, the Deans of Curriculum and Principals being the lead educators or trainers in their institutions needed to understand and unpack the designs and accompanying guidelines so that they can implement the program uniformly in all colleges,” said Mr. Barasa.
He lamented that the TTCs staff leadership would have brought the private institutions on board but this was not possible because of the large numbers at the moment.
“We will make another arrangement for the private TTCs that have been approved by the Ministry of Education to offer the upgrading program so that they can also be taken through the upgrade program,” he said.
Only 50 participants attended the retreat as per the Ministry of Health COVID-19 prevention protocols
Mr. Barasa said that the government started off diploma upgrade program with six pilot TTCs that were given students and later on there was an additional six making a total of 12 that now have regular students for the Teacher Training Program.
He added that tutors at the TTCs were ready to handle Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) because they had gone through an inter-agency training coordinated by Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in partnership with Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC), Ministry of Education (MoE), Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE) and Kenya Education Management Institute (KEMI).
