More female teachers are enrolling for upgrade programmes from Certificate (commonly known as P1) to Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) compared to their male counterparts, a recent survey report has shown.
The 2023 Economic Survey report shows that as the number of Public Teacher Training trainees for diploma pre-service and those upgrading from P1 to diploma increased from 2,088 in 2021 to 4,006 in 2022, the number of female teacher trainees increased by nearly fourfold to 3,170 translating to 79 per cent of the total trainees in the review period.
This led to the total number of teacher trainees in Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) rising by 9.5 per cent to 17,984 mainly on account of increase in the number of female teacher trainees by 25.2 per cent to 12,197 in 2022.
The teachers’ upgrading programme fronted by the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in July 2021 sought to upgrade the trainee teachers who are not in service from Certificate (ECDE) and Primary Teachers Education (PTE) to Diploma in Early Childhood Teacher Education (DECTE) and Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE).
The Ministry of Education wanted to ensure that teacher trainees, the majority being P1 certificate holders, align with the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) being rolled out in the country at the moment.
However, as per the survey report, enrolment for primary diploma upgrade declined by 2.1 per cent from 9,723 in 2021 to 9,515 in 2022; while the number of teacher trainees in secondary diploma teacher training colleges reduced by 10.7 per cent to 1,293 in 2022 following a 13.3 per cent and 8.4 per cent decline for male and female trainees respectively.
The P1 upgrade to diploma however led to a decline with teachers with certificate (P1) holders with the report indicating that it decreased from 155,423 teachers in 2021 to 152,839 teachers in 2022 with female teachers decreasing from 82,530 in 2021 to 81,963 teachers in 2022 while that of male teachers decreased from 72,893 in 2021 to 70,876 teachers in 2022.
The report came at a time when education stakeholders have raised concern of the dwindling enrollment in TTCs while that in Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) institutions has been increasing, since most students prefer to join TVET institutions due to availability of government funding and loans after completing their secondary education.
The survey further showed that since 2018, the number of female teachers going for higher academic qualifications has been increasing sharply with data showing that primary teachers who have Master and Doctorate degrees in 2022 increased from 1,100 teachers in 2021 to 1,158 teachers in 2022 while that of male teachers slightly increased from 887 teachers in 2021 to 889 teachers in 2022; increasing the number of teachers with those qualifications from 1,987 teachers in 2021 to 2,047 in 2022.
Those with Bachelor degrees increased from 26,155 teachers in 2021 to 27,324 teachers in 2022 with female teachers increasing from 13,289 teachers in 2021 to 14,115 teachers in 2022; while that of male teachers increased from 12,866 in 2021 to 13,209 teachers in 2022.
Those with Diploma holders also increased from 38,878 teachers in 2021 to 39,300 teachers in 2022 with female teachers slightly increasing from 21,588 in 2021 to 21,949 teachers in 2022 while that of male teachers also slightly increasing from 17,290 in 2021 to 17,351 in 2022.
Recently, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) mapped and deployed a total of 10,733 teachers with higher qualifications of diploma and degrees and requisite qualifications, from primary to Junior Secondary Schools (JSS).
By Our Reporter
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