All teachers registered by Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will be required to retake a refresher training to align themselves with the changes in Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
The one year school based mandatory training will start in April 2024. However it is still not clear whether teachers or government will fund the training.
This is part of the of recommendations of a draft report by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) handed over to President William Ruto at the State House yesterday.
Ruto already has ordered immediate implementation of the the recommendations of the Education Reforms Taskforce.
The taskforce noted that it was important to retool teachers on the changes in the curriculum. The training is expected to last for a year.
“The Ministry of Education to develop guidelines on how all teachers who graduated before 2023 undergo a mandatory one-year retooling and upgrading programme for compliance with the curriculum change,” read the recommendation in part.
To achieve the retooling exercise, Professor Raphael Munavu led force directed the university to develop comprehensive Faculty Staff programmes in preparation for competency-based teacher education.
To boost the number and quality of teachers entering the profession, the task force also recommended C (plain) as the grade for individuals to be admitted into pre-service teacher education.
For instance, for Diploma in Early Childhood Teacher Education, a person should have attained a C (Plain) in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) or its equivalent in SS.
Other pre-service courses that require a C (plain) include Diploma in Secondary Teacher Education, Diploma in Special Needs Education and Diploma in Technical Teacher Education.
“Establish Kenya Teacher Training College (KeTTC) to administer all Pre-service teacher training colleges (TTCs) as campuses. Further, develop a framework to ensure optimal utilisation and sharing of resources,” added the recommendations.
“MoE to establish a Kenya School of Teacher and Education Management (KeSTEM) as a corporate body to coordinate all In-service programmes for institutional leaders and education officers. Additionally, KeSTEM will offer CPD for teachers utilising facilities of Kenya Teacher Training Colleges (KeTTC).”
Admission requirements for the Bachelor of Education degree programmes shall, however, continue to be determined by the Universities’ Senates.
Teachers Service Commission, on the other hand, will offer all education graduates an opportunity to undertake a mandatory one-year internship programme upon completion of Pre-service training.
CBC’s rollout experienced immense challenges since its rollout during former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s tenure including a shortage of teachers for the Junior Secondary (JS) sector as well as a poor remuneration scheme. JS teachers went without pay since January only to receive a lump sum in June.
The press also reported towards the end of July 2023 that nearly 60,000 primary school teachers were yet to apply for a chance to teach Junior Secondary even though they qualified.
TSC managed to employ 30,000 teachers, 8,000 of whom were from Primary schools.