Teachers in public schools in Kenya will now be required to renew their professional certificates every five years. This is according to new policy guidelines that will demand teachers to undertake in-service professional training lasting for five years upon which they will get their certificates renewed.
This renew will be based on will be based on professional development roll out which will run for 30 years and has six modules each lasting five years. Every teacher will be paying Sh. 6,000 for each module.
The 340,000 public schools teachers will be trained at Kenyatta University, Mount Kenya University, Riara and Kenya Education Management Institute.The institutions have been contracted by Teachers service commission on annual agreement with an extension upon renewal. “We had a very hard time in negotiating for teachers because when you are at the negotiations table they referred to teachers as unskilled or semi-skilled,” Nancy Macharia, the chief executive officer at the Teachers Service Commission said. “We need to see our teachers conduct research projects and write academic and acclaimed research papers to improve the teaching quality in schools.”
This new training policy was first mooted in 2019 when the TSC said that all public school teachers in Kenya would be required to undertake teacher development courses after the pre-service (college) training, which will earn them a second certificate from the Teachers Service Commission.
“This will be the only way teachers will be allowed to practice in any school, and will be used as a pillar to guide promotions and demotions of teachers. It will be used to upgrade staff to end stagnation of members in the teaching profession,” Macharia said.
Most teachers are willing to undertake an in-service training without paying any costs . “In other professions,workers are taken for trainings and paid allowances for attendance”, Even Science teachers are always paid while attending SMASSE trainings” Kuppet Organizing Secretary, Nyamira . The commission should pay the costs and let teachers be .
What happens to teachers who will not train for TPD? Will they lose their jobs for lack of licence/certificate ? Teachers also require professional growth in different lines where they attend various institutions during holidays,does this mean that no more growth for teachers in other areas where they may be interested? Doesn’t that infringe their rights ? More remains unanswered by the commission.
In the meantime, a lobby group has threatened to proceed to court to obtain interim conservative orders and stop the commission from implementing the TPD program.
