The 2021 Teaching Practice (TP) assessment for teachers trainees has been officially announced by the government.
The Teaching Practice which had first been scheduled had its starting and ending dates reviewed.
In a circular addressed to Principals Special Needs Teacher Training Colleges, Principals Diploma Teacher Training Colleges, Principals Teacher Adult Continuing Education Centres, Principals Early Childhood Development Colleges and Principals Diploma Primary Teacher Education the Ministry said the changes were made inline with changes in the examination dates.
The Teaching Practice assessment started August and will end in November for some colleges.
Teaching Practice is a very important component in teacher training. Failure to attend teaching practice will lead to a candidate getting CRNM (Course Requirement Not Met) during the final results release.
The new Teaching Practice assessment dates proposed by the Directorate of Quality Assurance and Standards are as follows;
Certificate in Teacher Adult Continuing Education
- Date 29th August 2021 to 4th September 2021
Diploma in Teacher Education
- Date 12th September 2021 to 18th September 2021
Diploma in Special Needs Education
- Date 19th September 2021 to 25th September 2021
Primary Teacher Education
- Date 29th August 2021 to 4th September 2021
Diploma and Certificate in Education in ECDE
- Date 24th October to 3rd November 2021
The Directorate further said the PTE and TCAE Teaching Practice assessments will be done together due to the low number of candidates.
The Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) released PTE 2020 certificates July for collection despite the huge confusion that surrounded the results which were released this year.
Knec released PTE results in February 2020 and later recalled them thus creating confusion to the candidates who had already received the results from their colleges and had stayed with them for some days.
In the initial results candidates had huge number of quality grades especially Distinctions which raised eyebrows on authenticity of the results.
Many candidates also performed well in English and Mathematics which is unusual in a PTE exam.
However after making changes many candidates who scored Distinction got affected as they were awarded Credit pass instead. The number of quality grades reduced in affected subjects.
A number of candidates sat for their PTE resit papers after Knec released the timetable to guide the exams.
Last year candidates are the last lot to sit for the PTE exams after the Ministry of Education phased out the P1 Course and replaced it with Diploma for Primary Teacher Education (DPTE).
The Ministry also introduced Diploma for Early Childhood Development Education (DECDE) which replaces the regular ECDE certificate and Diploma.
However Ministry officials have been getting challenges in getting candidates to join the Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) during the first and second intake due to the high academic qualifications which most of the applicants are unable to meet.
The following are the minimum admission requirements for the Diploma in Primary Teacher Education in Kenya set by the Ministry.
(a) KCSE Mean Grade of C (Plain) with a C (plain) in the following cluster subjects.
i. English
ii. Kiswahili;
iii. Mathematics;
iv. Humanities (Any one subject);
v. Sciences (Any one subject) in pure or technical and applied sciences.
(b) For candidates with disabilities the minimum entry grade is C- (Minus) and a C- (Minus) in the cluster of subjects stated above.
The duration of the course shall be three (3) years in accordance with the approved Curriculum designs.
