Nancy Macharia speaks on April CBC training of high school teachers

The Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia said they are prepared to train teachers on the new curriculum earlier next month.

Macharia said TSC and Ministry of Education are also working closely together to ensure a smooth learning transition for the pupils to progress to the next grades.

More teachers, she said, will be trained beginning in April in preparation for the next grades.

The pioneer group of the CBC curriculum, now in Grade Five, are expected to progress to Grade Six on April 27, when schools reopen for a new academic calendar.

“We have already trained over 200,000 teachers in CBC progressively as we move to the next levels and this April we will be training more others in preparation for the next grades,” Ms Macharia said.

She spoke in Nakuru after overseeing the distribution of Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams that began on Monday.

The Commission is targeting to train 60,000 secondary school teachers in preparation for junior secondary.

The teachers will be put in a crash programme aimed at equipping them to teach key subjects in the junior secondary school next year.

The teachers who will be targeted in the first phase of the programme will be those handling Science and Physical Education subjects under the first cohort of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) graduates of Grade 6 who will sit their national assessments later this year.

In 2023 Grade 6 learners will transition to Junior secondary schools. Junior secondary comprise of Grades 7, 8 and 9.

The 60,000 teachers to be trained will be those handling Biology/Chemistry, Physics/Mathematics, and Physical Education according to a circular released by TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia.

Biology and Chemistry teachers will be equipped with expertise on how to handle integrated and health science while those teaching Physics and Mathematics will be retooled to teach pre-technical and pre-vocational education.

Physical Education teachers are expected to teach Sports and Physical Education in secondary schools according to the circular.

In April, the retooling will be in form of five day face to face training while subsequent continuous learning on the new subject areas will shift online.

Venues for the programme across the country will be carefully selected to ensure teachers can easily access them.

Ms Macharia was with Treasury Chief Administrative Secretary Eric Simiyu Wafukho, who said budgetary allocations had been made to cover activities in the new school calendar.

“Though there will be strain on resources due to the double intakes, the government is prepared and has factored it in the budgetary allocation,” he said.