Its now officially declared by the Teacher Service Commission that each of the 340,000 tutors must undertake mandatory professional courses that will inform their promotion and professional growth majorly in their teaching career.
As stated earlier on by the teachers CEO Dr. Macharia its now mandatory tutors to renew their practising certificate after every five(5) years. it will only seal through if they regularly take the refresher courses. From the document presented to TSC , each module will be taken every five years. With the modules in place each teacher will part with KSh:6,000 every year for the refresher courses dubbed Teacher Professional Development (TPD).
The fee will be paid by teachers even as unions said the matter should be revisited and cost shouldered by the employer. “This cost needs to be relooked at and even made cheaper,” said Akello Misori, the KUPPET secretary general.
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The courses to be taken shall be purely modular-based training programmes for all practising teachers and in line online and in-person approach will be adopted.
Teacher service commission recommended 4 institutions for the training of teachers and contracted them for one year with structures set aside for extension. The institutions are:
- Kenyatta University,
- Riara University,
- Mount Kenya University and
- The Kenya Education Management Institute (Kemi)
Speaking during the joint launch of the training programme, TSC CEO said the TPD is here to stay and is a life-long learning programme organised in six layered competency levels where each level takes five(5) years to complete .Requirements for teachers now is taking 5 modules for a specified period of 30 years that will amalgamate to a total cash of sh:180,000.In completion of each of the module successful teachers will have their certificates renewed after five years.
This calls for teachers to take steps in enrolling the refresher courses. Those who will not have taken the refresher courses will not be granted teaching licence and may not be authorised to teach anywhere in kenya.
AS stated by the teachers employer Dr Macharia, the overall aim/objective of the TPD programme is to continuously develop teachers’ skills and knowledge in line to be updated globally with aspect of not looked as unskilled. She also said the refresher courses will boost the CBC roll out as teachers will be equipped with necessary skills.
The modules presented will require each teacher take at least one in a year. The modules have been organised into chapters’ which will be taken by teachers every year. Classroom teachers will take up modules separate from the senior teachers, mostly institutional leaders and senior staff. Modules for teachers will include :
- professionalism
- pedagogy
- Competency-Based Curriculum and Assessment
- Inclusive education practices
- comprehensive school health and safety
- Instructional leadership, and
- Financial literacy skills.
And for institutional leaders(Principals, Deputy principals and Head Teachers ), the modules will include:
- professionalism
- Competency-Based Curriculum and Assessment,
- leadership in high-quality instruction and assessment,
- professional learning environment,
- building a positive inclusive learning environment,
- comprehensive school health,
- financial literacy skills.
What will the fate of those retiring?