All teachers employed by the Teachers Service Commission will be required to renew their certificates every five years. The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) also announced that it would no longer demote teachers. TSC says the Teachers Service Commission Act requires the renewal of certificates every five years.
At the same time, in the newly rolled out Teacher Professional Development program (TPD), Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will have to spend over 4.5 billion shillings to retrain 750,000 teachers.
TPD Modules Training for Teachers was unveiled by the TSC and is expected to cost the taxpayer billions. With this approach, it means that all the tutors will be expected to renew their certificates every five years.
According to the initial rollout of the program, the TSC had indicated that the teachers themselves would foot the bill of acquiring their own certifications. This sparked widespread protests, with the teachers, through their unions, pushing the employer to meet the refresher training costs
The National Assembly’s Education Committee, however, is of the view that the government should include the program in its annual budget so that teachers do not bear the burden of bettering their skills as required by TSC.
“The committee recommends that the Teacher Professional Development program being a training initiated by the employer should be paid for by the government,” stated the committee in a statement
There are over 750,000 teachers who are expected to undertake the program including 341,760 attached to TSC, 170,000 working in Private Sector, and 238,686 unemployed.
All teachers employed by TSC were directed by TSC CEO Nancy Macharia to enroll for TPD courses in the selected institutions of higher learning.
Following TSC’s move to implement the refresher courses to be done in modules, a number of teachers had registered ready to be being the modules in April.
Nevertheless, members of Parliament led by education committee chairperson Florence Mutua had to intervene to put the exercise to a halt until proper public participation is carried out involving all stakeholders
MP said that the government should fund the training instead of overburdening the already poorly paid teachers. The move by legislators has been received with jubilation among teachers across the country.
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