Jubilation as teachers in upgrade programme reach final huddle
Jubilation as teachers in upgrade programme reach final huddle
Thousands of trained teachers – who are not in service – and who returned to class sometime in 2021 for the upgrade programme – have begun their two-month teaching practice camp.
The students have been learning in the over 30 Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs) from October 4, 2021 – after the government sent out advertisements inviting unemployed trained teachers to enrol for the programme.
Most of the learners are optimistic that the one-year training set to end in November 2022, will give them an upper hand in future teacher recruitment exercises.
Mr. David – who enrolled in the inaugural programme said that the training was rigorous.
“It’s been a rigorous one-year of learning and sacrifice. I am happy we have learned new things,” noted David who cleared his TTC training in 2013 – and has been waiting to be absorbed for the last nine years.
The teachers’ upgrading programme fronted by the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in July 2021 sought to upgrade students from Certificate (ECDE) and Primary Teachers Education (PTE) to Diploma in Early Childhood Teacher Education (DECTE) and Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE).
The Education ministry wanted to ensure that teacher trainees, the majority P1 certificate holders, align with the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) being rolled out.
More than 220,000 unemployed trained teachers were targeted under the one-year skills upgrading programme.
A majority of the students who had left their teaching jobs in various public and private schools to undergo the one-year upgrade programme are now hopeful that jobs will come.
“I am hopeful that President William Ruto’s government will hire all the unemployed teachers within two years as he had promised in his manifesto,” noted David.
The teaching practice camp is part of the examination – with the learners having sat for test administered by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) in July 2021.
According to Mr. Patrick Otuori, the Dean of Curriculum (DOC) Borabu Teachers Training College, the teaching practice camp is expected to end in November 2022, marking the end of the programme.
“This was the inaugural cohort, and so we had a few things to learn, but the programme is going well, and we are happy,” noted Mr. Otuori.
He noted that the students were sent to undertake the teaching practice camp in school neighbouring the colleges – in an attempt to make learning smooth.
“The programme has equipped the students with practical skills, because teaching and learning is not just lecturing, but learning and teaching by doing,” noted Mr. Otuori, who believes that the students will stand out in future recruitments.
