The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has insisted that more than 300,000 who are unemployed have to attend the ongoing upgrading programme in order to be compliant with the new Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
The message was hammered home with the Commission declaring that TSC will not automatically take them in even if they complete the upgrading programme which lasts for a period of nine months.
TSC’s Director of Quality Assurance and Standards (QAS) Dr Reuben Nthamburi said that TSC has been informed of some teachers who have been posted to schools but have not been able to teach the CBC classes, and therefore necessitating the need for unemployed teachers to attend the ongoing upgrading programme.
“As indicated, as a Commission when we post a teacher who is not CBC compliant, we have been informed of cases coming up of teachers who have not been able to teach in Grades 1 to 5 because they are not CBC compliant. Therefore, we have decided that unemployed teachers should undergo the upgrading programme,” said Dr Nthamburi.
Dr Nthamburi who represented the TSC Chief Executive Officer Dr Nancy Macharia was addressing Senators of the Senate Committee on Education and the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) on sensitization that was held at Naivasha.
Dr Alice Milgo is the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Education.
According to Nthamburi, the training on the upgrade programme is not similar to the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) which was rolled out recently. He explained that the training is different from the TPD in that the training is intended to help teachers who are unemployed to be able to meet the teaching requirements of the CBC. This will enable them to reach the Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) level and be on the same level as DPTE graduates.
“We want to do away with inequality. As teachers complete the upgrade programme, they will be at the level of Diploma, making their remunerations on par for diploma,” said Dr Nthamburi.
However, Nthamburi did not reveal whether there is a requirement of the teachers undergoing the upgrade programme to also enrol in the TPD which requires teachers to pay an annual stipend of Sh 6,000 to train on TPD. After completing the TPD modules teachers will have the certificates renewed after every five years for the coming 30 years.
Despite the economic recession and the status of being unemployed, teachers undergoing the upgrading programme will see their pockets strained a lot more than they could want to.
It has been revealed that Public Teachers Colleges will be charging fees between Sh 65,000 and Sh 68,000 while private teachers colleges will be charging fees between Sh 79,000 and Sh 84,000.