The programme, rolled out last year, has to date reached about 28,300 new graduate teachers who have been undertaken through real-time classroom experiences over 12 months.

Speaking during the 17th Kenya Primary Schools Head Teachers Association Annual Delegates Meeting in Mombasa, TSC deputy director in charge of staffing Antonina Lentoijoni said the programme aims at improving the quality of education.

She said teachers who will be received in schools from next year will not be fresh from college but will be having at least one year of experience and whose skills have been sharpened.

“Since last year, the commission has institutionalised the programme that will see new graduate teachers given a one-year supervised coaching to sharpen their skills, knowledge and attitude of teachers,” she said.

Last year, about 10,300 interns were engaged in the programme with another 12,000 this year.

The commission has lined up 6,000 graduates expected to report to different schools from January 2022.

“Every child deserves a quality teacher and quality education,” she said.

So far about 229,000 teachers have been trained in the Competency-Based Curriculum.

Another 22,000 secondary school teachers have undergone the school-based teacher support system programme in English, Mathematics and Science.

Over 55,000 primary school teachers, mostly targeting mathematics teachers, have been trained.

She said the commission had rolled the teacher development programme to address new emerging challenges affecting the teaching sector.

Four institutions of higher learning have been accredited to offer the course.

They are Mount Kenya University, Kenyatta University, Riara University and the Kenya Education Management Institute.

“The four institutions have rolled out an online training programme targeting all teachers to ensure that they build their capacity to improve the quality of education,” she said.

“The commission had institutionalized a mentorship and coaching programme targeting newly recruited teachers and appointed administrators or teachers with professional gaps to go through to build their capacity.”

They will be paired with an experienced teacher to be directed on what to do until they can do it by themselves.

She said TSC was addressing the staffing challenge to ensure there are teachers in classrooms.

“The commission has lobbied for more funds from the government to recruit additional teachers to address the challenge of staffing in our schools and rolled out a plan to recruit 5000 new teachers annually,” she said.