The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will start a program for awarding its excellent teachers named ‘Mwalimu Award’ its CEO Dr Nancy Macharia has said today.
Macharia who was speaking during the official release of 2021 KCSE results at Mitihani house in Nairobi said the program will be launched following a greenlight given by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Currently a structured criteria and modalities for awarding teachers is being created by the Commission.
The program will see teachers who excel in various areas including academics, sports and co-curricular activities being awarded.
At the same time Macharia noted that the Commission received sh 1.2 billion for recruiting 6,000 intern teachers this year and another sh 2.5 billion for recruiting 5,000 others on permanent terms.
However she says the Commission is still struggling with severe teacher shortage which currently stands at 114,581.
Macharia said the Commission will start training secondary school teachers next week in preparation for January roll out of junior secondary.
A total of 60,000 teachers are targeted in this training which will include public, private and special need education teachers.
Macharia said the Commission targets to train a total of 116,024 teachers this year in preparation for January grade 7 classes.
She said by January 2023 there will be no gap in implementation of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) because all secondary school teachers will have been trained.
Macharia thanked teachers who manned and marked the 2021 KCSE exams with integrity.
“I thank all Kenyan teachers for remaining resilient and hardworking over the last two shortened academic calendar years. Most of you defied the raging Covid19 effects to assist in preparing learners to cover the syllabus,” said Macharia.
She said the teachers medical scheme AON Minet will continue supporting teachers who may get affected by the coronavirus.