TSC launches training for in-service teachers

The Teachers Service Commission has rolled out a professional development course after four years of opposition from the Kenya National Union of Teachers.

Former Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary general Wilson Sossion had opposed the Teacher Professional Development terming it illegal saying they had not been involved in crafting it.

Sossion further opposed the calls to have teachers’ pay for the in-service training.

In 2019, a Labour court halted the implementation of professional development training programmes that would determine the promotion of teachers.

The court observed that there being no regulation promulgated by TSC on the TPD programmes, there is no valid TPD programme for implementation.

However, a change in guard in the union leadership in June saw a change in heart with the union officials and employer TSC, agreeing to roll out the professional training.

Under the training, teachers in public schools will now be required to renew their professional certificates after every five years.

The teachers, in a new policy, will now be required to undertake in-service professional training lasting for five years upon which they will get their certificates renewed.

At the end of each module, teachers will be given a number of points yet to be made public.

However, those who choose not to take part in the training will not be at risk of losing their job as was earlier speculated.

In its initial phase of implementation, teachers will not be compelled to take the courses.

However, the Star has established that over time, the lack of professional training will hurt their chances for promotion.

The professional development will run for 30 years and has six modules each lasting five years.

Teachers will be required to pay Sh6,000 for each module and the training will be conducted during holidays.

Kenyatta University, Mount Kenya University, Riara and Kenya Education Management Institute will be responsible for the training.

According to TSC, the four institutions have been contracted on an annual agreement with an option for extension.

TSC, the employer of teachers in public schools, on Wednesday rolled out refresher courses for the 340,000 tutors across the country.

Chief executive officer Nancy Macharia said the plan is to professionalise the teaching fraternity to match other careers like law and engineering.

“We had a hard time negotiating for teachers because when you are at the negotiations table, they referred to teachers as unskilled or semi-skilled,” Macharia said.

With the rollout, Macharia argues there is going to be respect for the teaching profession.

She says the teachers will also be up to date with the changes in the academic world.

“We need to see our teachers conduct research projects and write academic and acclaimed research papers to improve the teaching quality in schools,” Macharia said.

-Edited by SKanyara