Over 1,800 students have been placed in primary and secondary teachers training colleges in a bid to bolster the human resource required for the delivery of Competency Based Curriculum(CBC).
Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha, while unveiling the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) selection outcome on Saturday, mentioned that this will enable the government ensure that the CBC program that has faced a number of hurdles is well mainstreamed.
“For the first time, KUCCPS placed applicants for admission to the 32 public diploma primary teacher training colleges. A total of 1,538 (1,216 female, 322 male) have been placed in Diploma in Primary Teacher Education and Diploma in Early Childhood Teacher Education Placement to Secondary Teacher Education Colleges,” he said.
“KUCCPS placed 293 (129 male, 164 female) to three colleges offering Diploma in Secondary Teacher Education, namely: Kagumo, Kibabii and Lugari TTCs,” Magoha added.
CBC implementation has faced headwinds with the main challenges being lack of adequate infrastructure and teaching personnel trained on the CBC curriculum.
The conclusion of placement for 2021 KCSE candidates follows a recent expansion of KUCCPS’ mandate, where the Ministry of Education transferred the mandate on admission of new TTC students to the placement agency.
Ahead of the 2022 intake, the ministry and KUCCPS convened a stakeholder forum for principals and deans of curriculum from all the 34 public primary teacher training colleges, to discuss a roadmap for admissions and train the participants on the automated KUCCPS placement processes.
Under the CBC system, learners will spend two years in pre-primary level, proceed to primary school from Grade I to VI, and then transition to secondary school for six years, a period that will be split into two: junior secondary school (three years) and senior secondary school (three years).
The final level is three years of university education.