Following the introduction of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) in schools, the system has created the junior and senior secondary school levels.
With a double intake looming in 2023, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has now issued its advisory following widespread calls for the Government to prepare well properly to ensure the new curriculum does not go burst.
The following is TSC’s advisory on junior and senior secondary schools.
ADVISORY ON THE COMPETENCY-BASED CURRICULUM (CBC) TEACHER PROJECTION REQUIREMENTS
The Commission is established under Article 237 of the Constitution with the mandate to perform various Teachers Management functions.
Specifically, the Commission is required to register trained teachers; review the general demand and supply of teachers in the Country; and to advise the National government on all matters relating to the teaching service.
We not that the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development Basic education framework has identified and accentuated new areas for curriculum development.
Inevitably, this initiative will require our considered input and/or recommendations.
The Commission is expected to project teacher demand levels and appropriate areas of focus that will inform the strategies for training and/or preparation of teachers who will be available and ready to handle junior and senior school learning.
We, therefore, wish to advise as follows:
The learning areas that will require special attention for the appropriate number of teachers are:
Core subjects
- Pre-Technical and Pre-Vocational Education
- Life Skills Education
- Agriculture
- Health Education (Home Science and Biology teachers can be retooled to teach the subject).
Optional Subjects
- Indigenous Languages
- Kenya Sign Language
- Sign Language
- Visual Arts
- Performing Arts
In order to implement some of the learning areas, there is a need to re-tool teachers in the following areas:
Core subjects
- Home Science and Biology, to facilitate learning in Health Education.
- Social Studies, include the new content on Citizenship introduced in the learning area.
- Sports and Physical Education, include the aspect of sports and health introduced in the earning area.
II) Flexibility of Education Curriculum
We advise and recommend that the teacher education curriculum should be flexible and aligned to enable one to teach/instruct a variety of subjects as proposed in Appendix No. 1.
III) Teacher shortage
In order to alleviate the perennial shortage of teachers and reasonably meet the demand for teachers in the country, the Commission further recommends as follows:
- Universities be appropriately informed about the new areas that should guide admission of students pursuing education to meet the projected demands.
- Private colleges and Universities be informed about the new learning areas so that they can equally admit students to pursue and train in the subjects.
The purpose of this letter is to admit the Commission’s Advisory on the teacher preparation and requirements to facilitate a smooth implementation of the Junior and Senior School curriculum delivery.
DR. NANCY NJERI MACHARIA
SECRETARY/CHIEF EXECUTIVE