Over 8,000 miss teacher colleges
Teachers Service Commission chief executive Gabriel Lengoiboni (pictured) said the agency was seeking to have “higher quality” graduates “as the quality of education depended on the quality of teachers recruited". Photo/FILE
What you need to know:
- Only 8,937 out of over 17,000 applicants have been selected to join the 22 public primary tutors training in September
Almost half of applicants seeking to join primary school teachers training colleges have been left out in this year’s intake.
Only 8,937 out of 17,281 applicants have been selected to join the country’s 22 P1 training colleges.
Among the selected are 4,613 males and 4,324 females, according to statistics released by the Education ministry on Monday.
Education Principal Secretary Richard Belio is expected to launch the selection at Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development in Nairobi on Tuesday. Successful candidates will join the colleges from September.
Applicants were required to have a C plain in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, with a minimum of D (plain) in Mathematics and a C- (minus) in English.
The entry points were lowered for the physically handicapped trainees — a mean grade of C- (minus). According to the ministry, 68 completely deaf and blind trainees have been selected to join the institutions.
The computerised selection was based on a quota system for the 47 counties. The selection is higher than the 8,600 trainees that were earlier expected to be enrolled into the colleges.
This year’s lot could be among the last groups to be admitted with a mean grade of C plain following a government plan to raise entry points.
Two weeks ago, Teachers Service Commission chief executive Gabriel Lengoiboni said the agency was seeking to have “higher quality” graduates “as the quality of education depended on the quality of teachers recruited.”
Addressing the 38th annual conference of the secondary school headteachers’ association in Mombasa, Mr Lengoiboni, however, said that the final decision would be made after consultations with the Ministry of Education.
Relevant courses
“We are required to review the standards of education in the country by law, vet the people being trained as teachers, as well as propose relevant courses for higher quality education,” he said.
“Further consultations with the ministry are on-going to ensure that regions that cannot attain such grades are considered,” he added.
Among the 22 public primary teacher training colleges, three cater for blind and deaf teacher trainees alongside other trainees.
These include Mosoriot, Machakos and Asumbi.
