- Mundigi has asked the government to state the number of teachers holding P1 and ECDE certificates currently in service.
- He also wants the government to provide the timelines for the proposed upgrading programme for the underqualified teachers.
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The Senate wants the government to come out clean on the fate of teachers possessing Primary Teachers Education Certificate (P1) and Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) Certificates.
It follows the recent Ministry of Education's guidelines policy mandating a minimum qualification of a Diploma for both ECDE and primary education teachers.
Embu senator Munyi Mundigi, while seeking a Statement from the Standing Committee on Education, said the government should give direction on the status and prospects of the affected teachers.
“State the number of teachers holding P1 and ECDE certificates currently in service and employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and county governments,” Mundigi said.
He also wants the government to provide the timelines for the proposed upgrading programme for the underqualified teachers to attain the required diploma qualifications in alignment with the Ministry of Education's guidelines.
“Shed light on the fate of the Blended Upgrading Programme as initially outlined in circular NO. MOE HQS/3/1/ (50) by the Ministry, which was to resume post-normalization of the school calendar following disruptions caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic,” he further demanded.
Mundigi also wants the government to state interventions to address the situation of teachers within the TSC who have not had the opportunity to upgrade their qualifications to a diploma level in light of the failure to resume the Blended Upgrading Programme.
A task force had recommended both P1 and ECDE teachers undergo compulsory training that began in October 2021. A Diploma Certificate was issued to the trainees at the end of the training.
The upgrading programme has four posts for DPTE (Diploma Elementary Teacher Education) and 5 posts for DECTE (Diploma Early Childhood Teacher Education).
Both will have a full duration for coursework and practice.
The graduates of the upgradation programme teach all the subjects offered in the area of training.
The total number of content and academic hours in the upgrade programmes is 786 hours for DPTE and 1176 hours for DECTE.
For ECDE up-gradation, they do all teaching areas in DECTE with more hours than in PTE upgrade, but both have 300 hours of teaching practice.
However P1 teachers only study subjects they didn’t do in college.