Policy: Primary school Diploma teacher training starts next year under CBC

Diploma training for primary school teachers under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) will start next year, the government has said.

Yesterday, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha, said the first group of diploma teachers will be admitted to various colleges marking an end to certificate training.

“For sustainable capacity development of teachers under the CBC, and to improve the quality of education, the government has revised the lowest pre-service teacher training qualification from Certificate (P1) to a Diploma,” said Prof Magoha.

The scrapping of certificate courses is a major step in the implementation of the CBC. The implementation moves to Grade Four next year.

The Ministry of Education suspended admissions to P1 training classes this year, as plans were made to reform the curriculum to admit diploma candidates.

Under the new grading structure, P1 which fell under job group G has been scrapped and has been replaced with grade B5.

This will now be the entry grade for all primary school teachers. Other grades – J, K, L, M, N - have been re-named C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5 respectively.

Magoha said there will be no turning back in the new curriculum implementation. He said the Ministry has supplied Grade Four textbooks to most of the counties.