20,037 teachers trained on the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) from various Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs) are set to sit for their final examinations this month.
The teachers who registered for a one-year upgrade Programme in September 2021 will be the first cohort of teachers trained on the CBC. The teachers joined TTCs when the government allowed applications for the training from July 29, 2021, to August 2021.
The upgrade programme was intended for the P1 teachers with certificate qualifications and Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers to upgrade to the new Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) and Diploma in Early Childhood Teacher Education (DECTE) respectively.
Following the revelation that no teacher will be employed if they are not CBC compliant, several teachers applied for the programme to avoid being left out.
The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has begun a nomination process for centre managers, supervisors and invigilators who shall administer this year’s Teacher Education Examinations that are set to be done between July 4 and July 27 this year. Consequently, KNEC asked the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to help in identifying teachers who shall serve in the required positions during the administration of the important examinations.
Via a circular, the Commission called on all its sub-county directors to identify and nominate centre managers, supervisors and invigilators who shall be involved in the administration of the examinations and further vet them before deploying them to KNEC’s Contracted Professionals (CP2) system by the 15th of June 2022.
“The 2022 Teacher Education Examinations are set to start on July 4, 2022, and end on July 27, 2022. In preparation for the administration of these examinations, KNEC would wish to have the details of all the centre managers, supervisors and invigilators who will be engaged in the activity,” said Dr Nancy Macharia in the circular.
The Circular also instructed sub-county directors to ensure that the number of Supervisors and Invigilators is adhered to during the optional papers. This was to ensure that there are no idle personnel during the exercise.
“The Centre Managers should ensure that only the required number of supervisors and invigilators report to the examination centres and online attendance is taken on a daily basis. This will ensure teachers will not be idling in examination centres,” said Dr Nancy Macharia in the circular.
The circular revealed that Primary Teacher Education (PTE) examinations will begin on July 4, 2022, and end on July 13, 2022, while Teacher Certificate in Adult Education (TCAE) will commence on July 4, 2022, and end on July 6, 2022.
For ECDE examinations, they will be done between July 4, 2022, and end on July 7, 2022, while Special Needs Education (SNE) examinations will start on July 4, 2022, and end on July 14, 2022. Diploma in Teacher Education (DTE) will start on July 4, 2022, and end on July 27, 2022.
There will be 151 invigilators for the 90 PTE colleges and examination centres while Special Colleges will be manned by 74 invigilators and additional supervisors.
Diploma Teacher Education colleges that have a total entry of 889 candidates will be administered by 50 invigilators and 20 supervisors, 443, ECDE colleges and examination centres will have 976 invigilators and 443 supervisors while the 7 centres for TCAE institutions will have 16 invigilators and 7 supervisors.
The Primary Teacher Education (PTE) commonly called the P1 Certificate was renamed recently to Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) and is intended to teach trainees who shall be handling the new CBC system after graduating.
Entry grades were raised from C- (Minus) to C (Plain) for the course for KCSE certificate holders and a requirement of a C (Plain) in English and Kiswahili, Mathematics, and any Humanity and a Science.
Previously, the entry grade was grade C- (Minus) and admission was done regardless of with no specification given to any subject.
In the new program, teacher trainees will spend three (3) years while before it used to be 2 years.
The CBC is a new curriculum that focuses mainly on boosting learners’ knowledge, experiences and imaginative understandings as well as developing moral values for lifelong learning. This forced the government to train teachers to enable them to coach the first cohort of Diploma teachers.