Intake for P1 teachers to begin next week

The intake for students to train as P1 teachers will begin next week, the Government has said.

The Government had asked qualified candidates to apply for the pre-service training in various teacher colleges across the country.

In a circular, the Director of Basic Education in the Ministry of Education, HS Abdi, asked all candidates wishing to join teacher training colleges to present their education certificates at zonal education offices.

“The Ministry of Education has invited high school certificate holders wishing to join the teaching profession to apply for primary teacher’s pre-service training for the year 2016... The selection is free of charge,” reads the circular.

Qualified candidates have until April 29 to submit their applications.

The Government circular comes amid conflict between the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Teachers service Commission (TSC) over teacher deficit.

The country has a deficit of thousands of teachers, and although more are trained every year, they end up with no jobs due to shortage of funds to absorb them into the profession.

In January, the Government sacked more than 10,000 relief teachers who had been hired to stand in for striking teachers in a salary dispute with the Government.

The current recruitment will see deaf and blind applicants get admitted with lower grades compared their able bodied counterparts.

“The prospective P1 teachers should have attained a Mean Grade of C in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations. Visually and hearing impaired as well as totally deaf and blind applicants should have attained a mean grade of C- in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examinations,” reads the circular.

It does not however indicate how many teachers will be trained. Letters for successful applicants will also be sent to the zonal offices.

Professional test

In 2013, TSC wanted to start phasing out primary school teachers with P1 qualifications. This came barely a year after the same commission scrapped P2 credentials.

At the time, TSC said all primary school teachers would undergo a two-year diploma-training course after which they would be required to do a professional test to acquire a Teaching Professional Certificate.

Teachers without the professional certificates would not be allowed to teach even if they graduated and were issued with a TSC number, according to then TSC Chief Executive Gabriel Lengoiboni. Those who were already employed would have been forced to undergo the mandatory professional training whose modules were being developed to acquire the certificate.

The teachers’ employer said the professional certificate could be withdrawn from teachers who would not perform or engaged in unethical practices. And the teachers with P1 qualifications who had enrolled for a university degree hoping it would enable them to secure employment in secondary schools were also in for a rude shock as TSC had ruled out such possibilities.