The Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) has ordered Principals of Teacher Training Colleges (TTC) to register all their Diploma upgrading teacher trainees ready for their assessment.
In a circular dated 22nd November 2021 Knec says the portal for registering the trainees will be opened on 22nd November and closed on 3rd December 2021.
Recently TTC Principals met in Naivasha and had suggested the upgrade programme be extended by six more months.
The Diploma upgrade programme was initially scheduled to run for nine months where six months was to cover class work and three months for teaching practice.
A taskforce had recommended both P1 and ECDE teachers to undergo the mandatory training which started in October. The trainees will be issued with a Diploma certificate at the end of the training.
The upgrading programme shall take 4 terms for DPTE (Diploma Primary Teacher Education) and 5 terms for DECTE (Diploma Early Childhood Teacher Education).
Both will have course work and a full term for practicum .
Graduates for the Upgrading Programmes shall be expected to teach all the subjects offered in the area of training.
The taskforce said blended learning and distance learning for the Diploma upgrade programme will be considered in due course.
The teacher trainees are expected to boost their employment opportunities upon graduating with the Diploma.
Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Director for Quality Assurance and Standards, Dr. Reuben Nthamburi already hinted on giving first priority to teachers with Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) skills.
Nthamburi urged those who have not enrolled to do so before its too late.
INITIAL CALENDAR FOR DIPLOMA UPGRADING STUDENTS
Term Opening Closing Duration
Term 1 4th October 2021 23rd December 2021 12 weeks
Holiday 23rd December 2021 3rd January 2022 1 week
Term 2 3rd January 2022 8th April 2022 14 weeks
Holiday 8th April 2022 29th April 2022 3 weeks
Term 3 3rd May 2022 5th August 2022 14 weeks
Holiday 6th August 2022 25th September 2022 7 weeks
Term 4 26th September 2022 25th November 2022 9 week practicum
Below is the circular and directives from Knec sent to college Principals.
To: All Principals of Teacher Training Colleges presenting candidates for the 2021 DECTE/DPTE Upgrade Assessment
SUBJECT: PRE-REGISTRATION OF TEACHER TRAINEES FOR THE 2021 DECTE/DPTE UPGRADE ASSESSMENT
The Ministry of Education admitted teacher trainees to upgrade their Primary Teacher Education (PTE) and Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) certificates to Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) and Diploma in Early Childhood Teacher Education (DECTE) respectively via circular Ref: MOE.PTE/1(3) dated 12th October 2021.
Knec shall offer assessment to these teacher trainees pursuing the upgrade course as mandated.
In order to facilitate Knec to deliver on its mandate, all the teacher trainees undertaking the upgrade course in your institution are required to be pre-registered for the assessment.
The purpose of carrying out the pre-registration is to facilitate Knec establish the teacher trainees undertaking the programme in order to prepare for the assessments.
The portal for pre-registration of DECTE/DPTE upgrade will be opened on 22nd November 2021 and closed on 3rd December 2021.
The college Principals will log onto the Knec portal https://cbate.knec.ac.ke using the username and password previously provided by Knec for use in the PTE online registration platform, to carry out the pre-registration.
Learners with disabilities and special needs should be correctly registered in the portal.
After uploading all teacher trainee details, the Principal should download the nominal roll and confirm the accuracy of each learners details.
Any trainee whose details are missing in the nominal roll should be inserted in the pre-registraion.
Upon successful pre-registration of the teacher trainees, an assessment number shall be generated by the registration system for each trainee.
This number will be used by Knec to identify and track each learners performance in all assessments.
You are required to bring this information to the attention of all the teacher trainees undertaking the upgrade course in your college.
The total number of the content and pedagogical hours in the Upgrading Programmes will be 786 hours for DPTE and 1176 hours for DECTE.
For ECDE upgrading, they will do all the learning areas in DECTE with more hours than in PTE upgrading but will both have a teaching practicum of 300 hours.
However P1 teachers will only study the subjects which they didn’t do in college.
“The CBTEC expects a primary school teacher to be grounded in all the subjects offered in primary schools, therefore upgrading PTE teacher trainee will be exempted from the subjects they had specialiszed in and take only those they did not take in the certificate course,” reads a taskforce report.
This programme currently only affects PTE and ECDE who are not in any form of employment.
“All teachers in service with Teacher Service Commission (TSC), County Governments and Private Schools will be expected to start the blended upgrade program when the school calendar normalizes having been disrupted by COVID 19 Pandemic,” said team made of officials from TSC, MOE and KICD.
REQUIREMENTS FOR P1 AND ECDE TEACHERS WHO WANT TO UPGRADE TO DIPLOMA.
For P1 teachers who want to upgrade to Diploma Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) they must meet the following requirements;
1. The applicant must possess a valid PTE Certificate
2. The applicant must be registered by the Teachers Service Commission.
3. The duration of the course shall be 1500 Hours.
4. The Course shall be fully residential.
5. The trainee shall take all courses specified in the upgrading programme of Diploma in Primary Teacher Education
6. The trainees shall undertake a Teaching Practicum of 300 Hours.
7. To be awarded the Diploma , the trainee must complete the required hours for Course Work and the stipulated assessment by the Kenya National Examination Council.
8. Applicants shall be required to produce evidence of adherence to positive morals and good behavior.
For ECDE teachers who want to upgrade to Diploma in Early Childhood Teacher Education (DECTE) they must meet these key requirements;
1. The applicant must possess a valid ECDE Certificate.
2. The applicant must be registered by the Teachers Service Commission.
3. The duration of the Course shall be1890 Hours.
4. The course shall be fully residential.
5. The trainee shall take all courses specified in the upgrading programme of Diploma in Early Childhood Teacher Education (DECTE).
6. The trainees shall undertake a Teaching Practicum of 300 Hours.
7. To be awarded the Diploma, the trainee must complete the required hours for Course Work and pass the stipulated assessment by the Kenya National Examination Council.
8. Applicants shall be required to produce evidence of adherence to positive moral values and good behavior.
