Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha will suffer yet another blow after legislators failed to pass the Universities Amendment Bill, 2021 in which he was seeking control over tertiary institutions.

The national assembly also rejected the placement of government-sponsored students to private universities.

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi faulted a report from the Education and Research Committee that gave the cs powers to appoint public university vice-chancellors and control decisions made by councils.

“Clauses giving powers to the CS to appoint VCs, revoke appointment of members of public universities and approve meetings raises questions of whether that will promote good governance. It is a matter the committee ought to have considered,” Mr Muturi said.

According to the legislators, giving the cs such sweeping powers violates the values and principles of governance as outlined in the Constitution.

The Universities Amendment Bill, 2021 sought to allow the CS to take “appropriate action in the public interest” to ensure proper governance in public universities.

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Since the bill was not passed, the CS will not have powers to revoke appointments, transfer and deploy members of councils, review or vacate council decisions and give approval to a council seeking to meet more than four times a year.

The lawmakers argued that the Florence Mutua-chaired committee ignored concerns raised by other MPs and allowed the changes to pass.

Mr Muturi said the team did not meet the threshold set by Parliament on the need for public participation.

In the reports tabled by the panel, the Speaker added, there was no indication on whether the committee invited vice-chancellors of the 52 chartered universities, including 32 public and 12 with letters of interim authority, to make presentations.

“There is no mention of the committee inviting and considering crucial input of stakeholders such as the Commission on University Education and existing universities fund boards,” he said.

MPs have called for an immediate stop to the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) courses until proper stakeholders’ consultations are undertaken.

They also want the training fees of Sh6,000 paid by the government and the list of institutions offering the refresher courses expanded.

The details are contained in a report of the National Assembly Education Committee tabled in the House on March 3, just before legislators went for a two weeks’ recess.

“If the Commission is not restrained from implementing the TPD programme, the rights of teachers and stakeholders under Article 232(1)(d) of the constitution stand the risk of being prejudiced,” said Committee chairperson Florence Mutua, who signed the report on March 1, 2022.

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The report follows a petition tabled on October 5, 2021, by Emuhaya MP Omboko Milemba on behalf of representatives of Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet).

In the petition, Milemba raised issues on cost of the programme, selection of institutions to offer the course and whether public participation was done before roll-out.

Kuppet and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) have argued that even though continuous training sharpens skills, the cost should be carried by the employer.

Proposing suspension of the programme, MPs said: “That the TSC should conduct extensive public participation as required and take to account the views of teachers, trade unions and other stakeholders with a view of building consensus on the programme.”

The proposal is a major setback for the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) that has been trying to professionalise the teaching service.

In their findings, MPs said that teachers are required to pay Sh6, 000 for each module of the TPD.

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.

“This is despite low salary increments for teachers, stagnation in the same job group and the rising inflation rate which has reduced the disposal income of teachers,” reads report.

Mutua argued that TSC has not made public to the teachers and other stakeholders in the education sector, the considerations it based on in arriving at cost per module.

“TSC committed teachers to personally meet the burden of Sh6,000 for each module of the TPD programme without any consultations with teachers,” said Mutua.

The PTD programme targets to benefit all registered teachers in public and private primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the country.

There are about 750, 446 registered teachers in the country. Of these, 341, 760 are under TSC payroll. Another 170,000 are registered and teaching in private schools. Another 238, 686 teachers are registered but not yet employed.

MPs also revealed that the cost of rolling out the TPD programme is Sh4.5 billion. It, however, emerged that some Sh2 billion had been set aside for the TPD programme.

On institutions offering the courses, MPs said that it was not clear why top universities and institutions did not bid despite having adequate infrastructure network, human resource capacity and experience to successfully run the programme.

TSC, through a competitive process, picked Kenyatta University, Riara University, Mount Kenya University, and the Kenya Education Management Institute to train the teachers.

Mutua said the TPD ought to have been integrated in the ongoing capacity strengthening programmes for teachers on the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).

“… to avoid duplication of government effort, waste of public resources and subjecting teachers to bearing the burden of a mandatory programme to achieve a well-coordinated and holistic approach,” said Mutua.

MPs also recommend the enactment of a new law and proposed changes to Article 237 of the constitution and the TSC Act to solve the conflict of interest of the commission being a regulator and an employer.

The committee observed that TSC holds the constitutional and statutory mandate of the employer and regulator with powers conferred by Article 237 of the constitution and TSC Act.

“There is need to establish a separate regulatory agency to remedy conflict of interest,” reads the report.

On public participation, MPs say that they could not ascertain whether public participation was done before roll-out.

“Diverse views and public debate on the programme would have made teachers more aware and prepared for the implementation of the TPD programme as well as improvement of the programme by employer,” reads report.

MPs argue that before the roll out, TSC ought to have conducted extensive public participation on the programme.

“TSC did not involve teachers in the preparation of the policy framework for TPD and its subsequent roll-out, contrary to the mandatory requirements of Article 232(1)(d) of the constitution, despite the fact that teachers are directly affected by the policy,” said Mutua.

TSC argued that TPD is anchored in law under Section 35(2) (a) of the TSC Act that 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.

Kenya national union of teachers (KNUT) officials, led by Assistant Secretary General Hesbon Otieno and Stanley Mutai are expected to meet members of the parliamentary committee on education which is headed by Florence Mutua over issues related to the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) today.

Otieno confirmed last week that they will meet the committee to present challenges teachers are facing ahead of the December TPD program.

However, Knut reiterated its support for TPD with Otieno and Mutai asking teachers with challenges concerning the training to present them to their branch union officials who will relay the same to the national office.

Sources close to KNUT have revealed that that the union is seeking to have TPD modules sponsored by TSC so that teachers do not fund themselves for a training organized by the employer. In addition, KNUT wants the duration of the TPD be reduced. By engaging with the parliament, it maybe possible to retailor the modules to suit the teachers.

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Last week Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General Collins Oyuu maintained that Teacher Professional Development (TPD) is not a new thing and that it is fully captured both in Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Act of 2012 and in the Code of Regulations for Teachers (CORT) 2015.

Addressing the press at Awendo East Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church, Oyuu stated that when the CORT came into operation in July 2015, he was not even the Secretary General of KNUT.

“TPD is neither an issue of yesterday nor that of last year. This is an issue that has been running from 2012 through an act of parliament. Go to the TSC Act, which is a legal document, Section 35 talks about TPD. Look about the Code of Regulations that was taken before the sub-committee on legislation in parliament; it also went through the education committee in parliament that is 2015. This document started operating fully in july 2015, none of us was Secretary General; I was not there as the Secretary General,” stated Oyuu.