The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is planning to review academic qualifications for people who want to join Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs) as part of the proposals to amend the TSC Act, 2012.
Commission Secretary and chief executive (CEO) Dr Nancy Macharia said the amendments to the TSC Act, 2012 will provide a qualifications framework to avoid periodic reviews of the entry standards into these colleges and is aimed at enhancing the teaching profession.
“We want to review the Act and Code of Regulations for Teachers (CORTs), entrench reforms and plan to meet stakeholders for a consensus,” Macharia told a media forum at a Nairobi hotel.
In the draft, TSC wants a person joining a Diploma teaching course to have a minimum overall grade of C Plain in KCSE and a C+ for one who wants to pursue a Degree course.
The commission also wants students pursuing a Diploma to have a Grade C- in English and at least a D in Math to help address challenges experienced in literacy and numeracy.
The commission’s Legal, Labour and Industrial Relations Director Cavin Anyuor said the review will aid produce the best professionals.
“There is a clamour to either reduce, increase or retain the entry grades. It is necessary to interrogate the entry requirements, look at other professions and juxtapose the teaching profession with others like Medicine, Law and Engineering to have a sober debate,” said Anyuor.
He said education stakeholders expect low entry grades while other professions have high grades and nobody complains, noting that it is necessary to rationalize entry grades for quality education.
The director said the commission will ensure graduates can teach globally as per the changes in the curriculum and delivery in the reforms being considered in the education sector.
The current Act, noted the director, was enacted in 2012, noting that every amendment they have proposed in the Bill originates from the commission’s constitutional mandate under Article 237.
He said the commission develops teaching and performance standards and ensures compliance, stressing that they want the government to maintain the teacher register.
Anyuor also said that the government has to issue and cancel certificates of registration for teachers in accordance with the regulations.
The government, he noted, has surplus teachers and plans are underway to export them to other countries, revealing that the TSC is in talks with the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Affairs to secure teachers jobs abroad.
By Emmanuel Gwakoi
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