Parliament Tells TSC To Foot teachers’ TPD Fees And Expenses
Members of the National assembly have asked the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to prepare legal documents which will facilitate the government to pay annual refresher training fees for teachers.
Each of the more than 340,000 teachers countrywide are required to undertake mandatory professional courses which will be used to inform their promotion and professional growth.
Dubbed Teacher Professional Development (TPD), the refresher courses have been organised into chapters that will be taken every year at an annual cost of Sh6,000.
This means that in an entire teaching career, each teacher will be required to take five modules within 30 years, translating to fees of about Sh180,000.
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National Assembly Education Committee members put TSC Chief Executive Nancy Macharia to task for not including the money as a budgetary requirement.
Macharia was also asked to explain how the training fees was arrived at, as MPs argued that even school fees and university fees are highly regulated. “We want to know why TSC has not factored in this money in its budget statement so that it can be an independent budget line funded by the government,” said Florence Mutua, chairperson of the committee.
MPs asked Macharia to prepare and submit a legal framework that would enable government foot the training bills. She had appeared before MPs to defend TSC budget requirements.
Omboko Milemba, who is also Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) chairman said the money ought to be paid by the State through TSC.
“TSC should now go back to prepare a legal document that led to the TPD programme, explain how the training fees was arrived at and also make a requisition for that money,” said Milemba.
MPs argued that all levies are determined by Parliament and sought to know the formula used by TSC to cap the training fees. Macharia said the TPD is anchored in law under Section 35(2) (a) of the TSC Act.
The Act says the commission shall require every registered teacher to undertake career progression and professional development programmes as may be prescribed by regulations made under this Act.
Macharia said Regulation 49(1) says that every teacher who successfully completes a professional teacher development programme and scores required points shall be issued with a teaching certificate by the commission.
And under Regulation 49 (3), a teacher who fails to go through the programme shall have the certificate of registration suspended until the teacher obtains the teaching certificate.
This means that all the teachers will be required to undertake the refresher courses to keep their jobs.
TSC, through a competitive process, picked Kenyatta University, Riara University, Mount Kenya University, and the Kenya Education Management Institute were picked by TSC to train the teachers.
