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Misori said for teachers to deliver the quality education, they ought to be well motivated.
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Macharia lauded teachers for successfully restoring the school calendar which had been disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Image: TSC/X
Teachers Service Commission Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia has said the quality of education a learner gets highly depends on teachers.
She said when learners are successful in their education, all credit goes to teachers.
"As one of the scholars, Christopher Pyne said a quality education begins with the best teachers. He said the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of teachers," she said.
She spoke on Thursday during the 2023 World Teacher's Day which was commemorated in Nairobi.
This year's celebration is themed "The Teachers We Need for the Education We Want: the global imperative to Reverse the teacher shortage."
Macharia said the theme for this year's fete is very timely, coming at a time when the Kenya Kwanza government recently employed 56,000 teachers to increase their presence in classrooms.
She said teachers ought to be celebrated for they have done exceedingly well in delivering quality education to learners.
Particularly this year, Macharia lauded teachers for successfully restoring the school calendar which had been disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
She said after the pandemic, the school calendar was constricted and this put pressure on both teachers and learners.
"Today, we celebrate our teachers for soaking all the pressure over the past two years which has enabled us to achieve the normal school calendar in year in 2023," Macharia said.
She also lauded teachers for being instrumental in transitioning Grade 6 learners to Grade 7 in Junior Secondary School under the Competence Based Curriculum.
Macharia said the commission is committed to ensure the welfare of teachers as their primary responsibility.
KUPPET Secretary general Akelo Misori called for strategy in helping Kenya get the teachers she needs for the quality education society wants.
Misori said for teachers to deliver the quality education, they ought to be well motivated.
"To the commission, you must pay us well. Kuppet power," he said.
Knut Secretary general Collins Oyuu said the world is transforming, adding that education must also transform to achieve quality education.
"We must walk side by side with the evolving education system," he said.
He appealed to TSC to walk with Knut and other teachers' unions to deliver quality education to learners by empowering teachers.
"We must walk together as teachers' unions and the TSC, the employer, for us to realise the teacher we need for the education we want. We can not walk solo as teachers, and TSC can not walk solo as the employer," Oyuu said.
He said a teacher who is well catered for will perform well in class and deliver quality education.
Oyuu assured the union will forever support teachers in Kenya.
Kenya Women Teacher's Association CEO Benta Opande said for the nation to achieve education quality that meets international standards, then the country must have the correct value of teachers who have the right content.
"We have gone 10 steps ahead as KEWOTA to start a laptop project. In the laptop project we are supplying laptops to teachers and these laptops have got books which have already been embedded in them. Around 140 text books already digitised in the laptops," Opande said.
She said teachers now have an opportunity to carry laptops to class instead of textbooks.
Opande said in the laptop, a teacher can generate their lesson plans, lesson records, and scheme of work.
She said KEWOTA is encouraging teachers to enhance their skills in digital learning and digital teaching.
"Once we have teachers who can teach using the gadgets we have, we will not need to be crying about shortage of teachers. Because one teacher can teach 300 learners in one hour and the feedback can be provided immediately," she said.
She said the laptop also has a programme that will have teachers earning when they upload questions to it.
Questions are picked by the programme and the teacher earns based on the questions picked.
She said this will be like a side hustle for teachers. She said KEWOTA is working to ensure teachers have more money in their pockets and better skills.
"It is important that we do not leave our teachers behind in the 20th century," she said.
Image: TSC/X