Teachers may soon need to produce practicing licences

By Sam Otieno and Beauttah Omanga

Teachers may soon be asked to obtain licences before they practice if recommendations by an international conference on challenges facing the education sector are adopted. A board comprising academics and scholars to regulate the teaching practice and issue licences could also be established.

Those licensed would then be monitored by the board, as is the case with other professional bodies such as the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board or the Law Society of Kenya.

Making the proposals at an international conference on education in Nairobi, former Kenyatta University Vice-Chancellor George Eshiwani said the board would also regulate the conduct of teachers.

"The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is not going to raise this, but we as academicians should ask for it and be mandated to supervise teachers who have been licenced," said Eshiwani.

Higher Education Assistant Minister Asman Kamama said the ministry would consider the proposals and implement those that are feasible.

"We will gather the synopsis of the entire presentations at this conference and implement those that are tenable," he said.

Financial challenges

Kamama said the Government faces challenges on the higher education sector; key among them is financing institutions of higher learning.

Unlike other conferences, the Assistant Minister stayed on for the entire day to follow the proceedings and the presentations.

"We are going to take these recommendations very seriously, that is why I stayed the whole day here," said Kamama.

The teachers’ employer and their umbrella body welcomed the proposal for the establishment of the board, saying it was overdue.

TSC Chairman Ibrahim Hussein and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary General Lawrence Majali, speaking separately, said they were not opposed to the idea.

Hussein said just like lawyers have the Law Society of Kenya, teachers, too, deserved a body that would monitor their professional undertakings.

Professional issues

"Teachers need a body that would handle some professional matters provided it sticks to its mandate and leaves other bodies to handle theirs," said Hussein.

Majali said the Kamunge Commission on reforms in the education sector made similar recommendations and teachers were willing to comply if the ministry of Education approved it. "As Knut we are not opposed to such a body. We are even waiting for the Minister for Education to call for a meeting to discuss a recommendation by Kamunge that the country needs a teachers’ registration board," he said.

Dr John Tillotson, an associate professor at the Department of Science and Teaching at Syracuse University in the United States, said most countries licence teachers.

Eshiwani, a renowned educationist, proposed teachers take a longer duration in training and that the current Bachelor of Education programme be replaced.

Internship programme

Teachers, he said, should be engaged in a one-year internship programme while under the supervision of TSC, the board, and the university before being absorbed into permanent employment.

"The current 12-week teaching practice and the three-years academic work is a shame," said Eshiwani, who presented a paper on ‘Innovation in Higher Education in Kenya: Challenges and Options with Special Reference to Teacher Education’.

But TSC and Knut opposed the proposal, saying teachers be subjected to a new kind of probation by schools, the yet to be established board, and parents before making recommendations to TSC before employment.

Hussein said TSC is already subjecting teachers to a two-year probation upon recruitment. "TSC has its mechanisms and all teachers have to be under probation for two years. It will amount to duplication of responsibilities between the TSC as the employer and the new body tasked with the same."

Majali echoed Hussein’s stand, saying TSC should be left to handle the probation as an employer.

"So far TSC has carried out that responsibility well and it should not be interfered with by transferring that obligation to other bodies," he said.

Scholars from around the world are attending the conference whose theme is "Innovative Teacher Education and Classroom practice in the 21st Century". Other recommendations include scrapping of the Joint Admissions Board (JAB), a body that admits university students.

"If majority of the university students under the parallel degree programme are not admitted through JAB, then what is the purpose of maintaining the body?" asked Eshiwani.

Eshiwani criticised the uncontrolled expansion of university education through opening up of more campuses, saying an alternative would be to strengthen the open learning system.

Milking cows

He said most universities look at the expansion as a milking cow saying this is the point where quality starts to plummet.

"If you look at it as a cash cow, the expansion is a curse rather than a blessing," he said.

He cited the current trend, where universities admit more than 130 Masters students.

Eshiwani also gave an example where in a public university, which he declined to mention, had an advertisement on its notice board for hiring thesis and project writers.

Kenyatta University Vice-Chancellor Prof Olive Mugenda described unequal access to education opportunities, high drop out rates and indiscipline as the major challenges facing education.