The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is in the process of scrapping the long standing P1 course for primary school teachers and proposes a Diploma as the entry point in the ongoing reforms.
The Diploma will be aligned with the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) as a way of the government upholding the standards of the teaching profession as contained in the TSC Act, 2012.
A P1 was attained by undergoing training at a Teacher Training College (TTC) before graduating with a Primary Teachers Certificate.
If these changes are adopted, the P1 certificate will be phased out to pave way for a higher qualification in the Diploma certificate as the minimum requirement to join the teaching profession.
In the proposed changes, an applicant must have scored a C Plain overall grade plus at least a D+ in Mathematics and C- in English to qualify for Diploma training.
TSC has in the reform proposals also outlined the circumstances under which a teacher may be deregistered or punished depending on what crime they committed while dispensing duty.
TSC’s move to make sweeping changes to its Act has elicited a lot of criticism, with many stakeholders claiming that the amendments come at a time the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) recommendations are being implemented. Some also say they were not consulted through the public participation forums that the commission organized recently.
TSC, however, says it is guided by the constitution as well as the same recommendations of the PWPER.
By our reporter
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