Storm over teachers’ new training requirement

Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed speaks after chairing stakeholders' meeting on curriculum reform. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

A storm is brewing in the education sector over a proposal to raise teacher training grades to B- (minus).

A teachers’ needs assessment report released yesterday finds that teacher education requires major reforms that include scrapping certificate courses and setting diplomas as the minimum training level.

The report also calls for a thorough training model for teachers, complete with an assessment system that includes short tests, longer practical sessions and mandatory research work.

If the new requirements are adopted, people seeking to teach in nursery schools will need to score a minimum Form Four grade of C (Plain) to gain admission in training colleges. This is the current admission requirement for certificates training level for P1 teachers.

Those who want to teach in primary schools will now join training colleges with a minimum grade of C while those looking for secondary school positions will require a B- (minus).

“Teacher education for early childhood development education, primary and secondary education to take place at diploma college and lasting two years,” reads the Pre-service TeacherEducation Framework revised in June 2018.

The report, prepared by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), also says that grade C will be adopted in Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions.

The report was released during an education curriculum stakeholders meeting chaired by Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed yesterday.

The report findings are feedback from all teacher training colleges in a survey that also engaged students, teachers, head teachers, principals, deans of education in universities, education field officers, educationists and other stakeholders.

New curriculum

The details come as debate on teacher training and preparedness mounts under the new competency-based curriculum.

The findings of the report were not discussed at the meeting but The Standard established that the matter was referred to a sub-committee for further deliberations.

The new proposals are however in conflict with the recommendations of a Government agency mandated to set minimum training standards across all levels.

The Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) set grade D as the entry grade for all certificate courses and C- (minus) as the minimum diploma entry grade.

Bonaventure Kerre, the KNQA Council chairman, yesterday termed the new KICD proposals "mere recommendations for the future".

“What we are focusing on now are the regulations gazetted by the Cabinet secretary that have spelt out the minimum requirements,” said Prof Kerre.

But the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), parents-teachers associations and private schools have rejected the KNQA gazetted standards, with the commission writing a protest letter.

“The commission takes the view that your proposal to lower the qualifications of persons to train as teachers has the potential of over-flooding the job market with low grade persons trained as teachers,” said TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia.

New standards

In her letter to KNQA Director General Juma Mukhwana, Ms Macharia also faulted the reasons cited by the authority for setting new standards.

The authority has however maintained that it is the only body mandated by law to set minimum entry requirements for all teaching levels in the country.

The Education CS is expected to meet TSC and KNQA today to craft a way forward ahead of student admissions this year.

Meanwhile,the Kenya Private Schools Association has said member institutions will not recruit teachers who train with a minimum D grade.

“We already made a resolution that we shall not hire any teacher who will have trained with such low grades,” said Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndoro.

Private schools currently have a teacher capacity of 118,000.