A row is simmering between the Ministry of Education and key education stakeholders over the proposal to lower teachers’ minimum entry grade to training colleges.
Parents and teachers unions have joined the teachers’ employer in rejecting the push by the Ministry to lower P1 teachers minimum training grade to D.
Persons wishing to train as teachers are presently required to have a minimum Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) grade of C and also post quality scores in the teaching subjects. The Ministry, through the newly established Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) has set C– as the minimum diploma entry grade and D for certificate courses.
Mandate
And for teachers, the authority cited the declining number of students choosing teaching as a profession as basis for lowering the certificate training entry grade.
Parents and teachers have protested the move, with Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia cautioning students that they will not be registered if they train with low grades. The teachers’ employer has also questioned the authority of the KNQA to effect such changes, escalating the controversy. The TSC maintains that the mandate to lower training standards does not fall within the purview of KNQA and advanced its authority as an independent commission.
In a tough letter to KNQA director general Juma Mukhwana, TSC says the Authority is restricted to only “reviewing interrelatedness and linkages of the existing qualifications for national good”. “The Commission takes a serious view of the attempt by the Authority to arrogate itself the powers to review the standards of education and training of persons entering teaching service and proposing to lower the minimum entry requirements,” said Mrs Macharia in the letter dated September 25. But Mukhwana insisted that its only the Authority that is mandated in law to set minimum entry requirements for all teaching levels in the country. “We have done our work. Setting the minimum requirements. As long as the grades they are talking about fall within the minimum standards we are speaking the same language,” said Mukhwana.
In rejecting the proposals, the TSC also poked holes on the reasons cited by the Authority to lower entry grades, saying there are already some 290,000 trained teachers who are yet to be employed. “This huge number of unemployed teachers cannot be an indication of lack of interest in the profession. It clearly demonstrates that the country has surplus trained teachers,” said Ms Macharia. In her letter, Macharia said lowering of entry grades for teachers training is mainly advisable where there is a sustained lack of interest in the profession like in Zimbabwe.
“This is not the situation in Kenya,” she said. Parents yesterday expressed shock at the proposal and questioned the quality of teaching and the excellence of students who will be taught by the new crop of teachers. “Our fear is that if the teacher scored a D how will their students score higher grades? Will they be able to motivate learners to aim higher?” said Nicholas Maiyo, the National Parents Association chairman. “We actually hoped that it should be higher so that we attract the best brains to teach our children.”
And the push to reject the Ministry proposal is now shaping into a trade dispute, with the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) officials weighing in. Kuppet Secretary General Akelo Misori has written to Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed rejecting the proposals. Misori explained why a grade D student may not be able to conceptualise aspects of teaching curriculum to effectively convey course concepts to young minds. Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion said the union stands for quality teaching across all schools. “What we have all been championing is stakeholders engagement. This irons out issues rather than chest thumping on this and that,” said Sossion.