West Pokot techers have applauded the Ministry of Education for lowering entry grades for joining teachers training colleges.
They say the directive will help address the issue of teacher shortage in the country.
The area Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary Martin Sembelo said marginalised counties have faced teachers shortage for a long time because
those from other regions are not willing to teach there.
Agreeing with earlier sentiments of Knut national boss Wilson Sossion, Sembelo said the directive should have been issued long time ago to enable children from marginalised regions compete equally with others in the country.
“This county, we are having a shortage of 2,500 teachers. This new directive will help us address this issue since we shall have enough teachers from the county,” he said.
The secretary said the directive will not lower down the level of education in the country.
“We have many people in this country who are successful and they were taught by teachers who had grades below D plus. Let’s not deny the young generation the urge to realise their dreams,” he said.
He said the directive will help lower illiteracy levels in marginalised counties since many children drop out of school due to lack of teachers.
“Many children are unable to further their education due to lack of teachers. In some schools we have four teachers against eight classes,” he said.
The Kenya National Qualifications Authority lowered the entry requirements for diploma and certificate (P1) courses last month.
Certificate courses will also be phased out next year.
“This is in line with the Kenya National Qualifications Framework, which has been widely discussed and adopted by stakeholders,” the authority’s director-general, Dr Juma Mukhwana, said in a statement.