Here is why the Government could soon cover TPD costs

Join Our Telegram Group

The Teacher Professional Development (TPD) training has been a contentious issue among teachers for some and now the government might cover the costs if parliament approved the proposed supplementary budget.

A sum of around Kshs 2 billion has been added to the 2021/2022 supplementary budget and if approved the state will be covering the TPD costs.

The government agreed to pay the cost of TPD training in a budget submitted in Parliament. This is following calls from multiple teachers’ unions.

Now it is up to the National Assembly to pass the supplementary budget for the government to cover the costs of the TPD training.

The allocation of the funds for the TPD follows Emuhaya MP Omboko Milemba’s petition in the National Assembly. MP Omboko is also the chairperson of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET).

“Education is for the good of the public so we should not surcharge teachers. TSC should treat this the same way training for CBC is treated. Now it is up to MPs to approve or not but we shall be defending the petition on the floor of the house,” said Milemba.

On the other hand, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) held a meeting with members of the parliamentary Education and Research Committee at a Nairobi Hotel over the issue.

“We agreed as a committee that the money should be gotten from the Ministry of Education. We will now fight for the funds to be included in the budget,” said Ms Florence Mutua, the chairperson of the Committee.

The Committee reviewed proposals to the supplementary budget estimates from both the Ministry of Education and the TSC.

Teachers are set to attend TPD training in April, this time face-to-face while in December it was purely virtual (online).

According to TSC, training on the TPD will be done three times in a year. However, the Commission also revealed that when the school calendar normalizes, physical training (face-to-face) will be done during the December holiday.

Online training will be down in April and August holidays.

Teachers have been opposing the TPD for some time now owing to the required Kshs. 6,000 fees with some choosing to follow the TSC directive and enrol in the TPD. In the TPD, there will be 6 modules that teachers will cover over a period of five years.

This means that if the government will cover the cost of the TPD, it will have to pay Kshs. 180,000 for the entire 30-year period for each teacher.