TSC rejects proposal to lower entry grades for colleges

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has rejected a proposal by the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) to lower the entry grades for teacher training colleges.

To address the issue, Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has invited the TSC, the KNQA and the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) for a crisis meeting on Thursday next week (October 4) in Nairobi.

QUALITY

In a letter dated September 25 to the authority’s Director-General Juma Mukhwana, TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia said lowering the grades will affect the quality of teachers.

The authority had indicated that students seeking to study for diploma in education should have a C plain or C- in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE), down from the previous C+.

Meanwhile, those seeking a certificate in education (popularly known as P1), needed a D+, down from a C plain.

“These changes will ensure the sustainability of teacher training in the country, which is under threat from reforms being undertaken in the technical vocational education training (TVET) sector,” Dr Mukhwana said early this month.

MANDATE

But TSC hit out at the authority, saying it has no mandate to decide the entry grades for those joining teaching, warning that it will not recognise such teachers.

“The commission takes a serious view of the attempt by the authority to arrogate itself the powers to review the standards of education and training of persons entering the teaching service, and proposing to lower the minimum entry requirements. Lowering of minimum entry standards for teachers is a serious affront to national development and may be a recipe for failed future economy,” the letter reads.

“That a country’s development is anchored on the quality of education it offers to its youth cannot be overstated. For this reason, it is of great importance to put in place minimum qualification requirements for persons aspiring to train as teachers, which serve as a filter to let in only the best to become teachers. This is the surest way to provide to the youth, the holders of our future, the opportunity to have the best teachers.”

BUDGET

“As a result, currently there are more than 290,000 trained teachers who have not secured employment with the commission due to budgetary constraints and other factors. Some of the teachers in question trained as far as back as 2008.

"This huge number of unemployed trained teachers cannot be an indication of lack of interest in the profession. It clearly demonstrates that the country has surplus trained teachers,” she added

“From the foregoing, the Commission takes the view that your proposal to lower the qualifications of persons to train as teachers has the potential of overflooding the job market with low-grade persons trained as teachers.

"The upshot is that, should persons with lower qualifications opt to train as teachers, they face the danger of not being registered by the commission on account of non-compliance with the commission’s standards,” the letter says.

Mrs Macharia said as a regulator, the commission has the mandate to review the standards of education and training of those entering teaching service and to advise the government accordingly.