Mammoth crowds were witnessed at Sheikh Zayed Children’s Welfare Centre in Mombasa yesterday and part of today as school heads were scrambling for the ‘few chances’ of getting registered with the teacher professional development (TPD) training institutes present at the conference.

This occurred after the speech by the TSC Director for Quality Assurance and Standards Dr. Reuben Ntamburi and the continuous TSC/ KESSHA organised guidance and consultation sessions at the grounds.

 TSC directors present at the conference said that all teachers must be under the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) training as a statutory requirement.

According to the Director for Quality Assurance and Standards Reuben Ntamburi, TPD is a requirement under the law and no teacher will escape it. He also said teachers will continue to pay for the programme until parliament allocates funds.

“TPD is required under the law. The elephant in the room is the Sh6,000 for training. We are making efforts to convince parliament to allocate funds for it,” he said.

Dr Ntamburi said TSC has picked four universities to undertake the training of teachers on TPD, online. This will happen over five days from May 9.

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According to a witness present at the conference, deliberations by the TSC staff could have led to this turn of events. The witness, who sought anonymity, revealed that KEMI, MKU and Kenyatta University all erected tents at the grounds from Sunday to receive and register the heads for TPD Training, in a move that seemed somehow orchestrated prior to the event. Sources revealed also that KEMI registered the highest number of heads for TPD since it’s tent had not only the longest, but also the thickest queue.

“Principals are registering for the illegal TPD in mass. Don’t be deceived that TPD stopped and that no lessons are going on. These people have betrayed teachers a great deal,” revealed a witness.

Though very contentious, issues dealing with the  teacher professional development (TPD) , which visible shocked the school heads, were brought again at the conference.

The heads were shocked that even after the national assembly order to TSC to stop TPD until it meets certain conditions, the latter still has intentions of forcing teachers to pursue TPD and pay for the training before fulfilling any condition.

According to the document titled Teacher Professional Development Framework and Roll Out of Structured TPD in Kenya prepared the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), teachers currently employed or serving under the commission and who will not have renewed their teaching certificates by 2027 will automatically be deregistered by TSC.

The implication is that teachers who will not have completed their first module of TPD risk being deregistered and losing their teaching jobs since TSC dictated that teachers should renew their certificates after every five years.

Teachers who want their certificates renewed will have to complete 5 chapters of a module and provided documentary evidence of successful completion.

The teachers’ employer rolled out TPD in September 2021 and the pioneer classes are expected to begin on December 27. One module takes five years to complete hence the implication that by 2027, all currently serving primary and secondary teachers should have completed the first module and renewed their teaching certificates.

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After the completion of the five chapters of module one and certification, a teacher will proceed to level two.  “Upon commencement of the TPD Programme, all serving teachers will be required to acquire teaching certificates renewable every 5 years while the subsequent applicants for Certificate of Registration will be issued with both certificates,” reads a section of the document.

The TPD framework outlines that the TPD programme will adopt two dimensions; the Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) and Modules prescribed by the commission. Each module will contain five chapters which include professionalism, pedagogy and Competency-based Curriculum (CBC) and inclusive Education practices, Assessment and reporting, comprehensive school health safety and financial literacy skills and instructional leadership for teachers. The teachers will earn 40 marks by fully participating in TPAD and 60 marks from the TPD modules.

While TPD programmes are practised globally and believed to instil continuous skills, the recently launched programme by the Commission has attracted mixed reactions. Some teachers have called for the suspension of the programme, others want the employer to provide funding, while another group is pushing the period of the in-service training to be reduced.

The new roll out of the TPD programme was necessitated by the 21st Century demands for the 21st Century learners who are confronted with increasingly complex social, cultural, economic, technological and global challenges. It was argued that teachers must prepare learners who possess sophisticated, diversified and complementary competencies that will enable them to navigate through these challenges. “Teachers just like other professionals, participate in professional development to learn and apply new knowledge and skills that will improve their competence and leadership capacity through structured programmes developed by a regulator,” reads the document.

Following the shift in the teaching profession, the Commission maintains that they had to develop a TPD Policy Framework which made TPD compulsory to all teachers, made TPD activities a lifelong learning programme carried out in 6 levels and introduced the Kenya Professional Teaching Standards (KePTS) and the use of accredited TPD Service Providers to deliver the programme.

“All TPD programmes organised by the Commission or by accredited service providers will be based on   KePTS , a set of competency standards that describe what a Kenyan teacher should know and be able to do for improved learning outcomes,” adds the document.

TPD programme is structured into six sequential levels corresponding to the competency level of the teachers with   each level having a corresponding TPD Module. The six levels are Knowledge level on the standards (level 1), application level (level 2), mastery level (level 3), mentorship and coaching (level 4), institutional leadership (level 5) and mastery in instructional leadership (level 6).

The Commission states that Level 1 will apply to teachers who have only served for 5 years while Level 6 teachers are the most experienced teachers with competencies to guide young teachers to be instructional leaders.

“Each level will be offered as per the specific module of the level. Each module is designed to add value and improve teachers’ competencies and learner outcomes. TPD Service providers will deliver each module on behalf of TSC,” reads the document.

The Commission notes that TPD activities will be evaluated based on authentic assessment which will include reflective journal, participant led final synthesis and individual Professional Portfolio Development and Presentation. Teachers are expected to enrol and undertake a face-to-face TPD programme session once a year during the school holiday and online TPD sessions during the other two school holidays. The face-to-face sessions will be for a minimum of 40 hours per week and will be undertaken at all sub-county training centres across the country.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC)Chief Executive Officer, Nancy Macharia, has issued the date when teachers will start their Teacher Professional Development (TPD) program.

Macharia said the training will start in five days’ time as she warned teachers who have not registered for the program.

She was talking in during a press briefing where she maintained that teachers who will attend the training will be issued with teaching certificates (licence) that will authorize them to teach.

However, those who will fail to attend the training, she said, will be dealt with according to the TSC Code of Regulations for Teachers (CORT).

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“A teacher who fails to undertake a prescribed TPD or take a teaching certificate shall be dealt with according to the code of regulations for teachers,” said Macharia.

According to Macharia, the training is aimed to enhance previous teachers training and asked both public and private school teachers to register for the training. She said the training will be purely online.

Her sentiments come few days after the official TPD training centres for teachers were released.

The teacher training programme is scheduled to start next week Monday 13th December 2021 and will be purely online (virtual).

TSC picked four institutions to offer teacher training. These are Mount Kenya University,Riara University, Kenyatta University and Kenya Education Management Institute (KEMI).

The training which takes 30 years will cost a teacher sh. 6,000 yearly. However, most TPD Service Providers have spread the fee for a period of 12 months to ease payment for teachers.

During the December training teachers will be introduced to the first module, Introductory

module.

This program will introduce teachers to Teacher Professional Development and to the Seven Kenya Professional Teaching Standards (KePIS).

The introductory module has five chapters, which are expected to be completed within one year.

The content of each chapter is based on current knowledge and research applicable to the practical needs of a Kenyan classroom teacher.

After the introductory module, the teachers and the instructing leaders will then proceed to the level one module.

There will be two different modules: One for the Teachers and the one for Instructional Leaders.

Level One module will have 5 chapters. A teacher or an instructional leader will take one chapter per year for a period of 5 years but to a maximum of 7 years. Level two to Level six modules will each take 5 years.

Despite some teachers opposing the programme, the Commission has vowed to proceed with its plans to train its teachers.

“It is the question of what do we want best for our teachers, the future of a teacher in the country. the 21st century teacher. We would like to get a professionalized teacher, and that one we are not relenting on it,” said TSC Director of Quality Assurance and Standards, Dr. Reuben Nthamburi.

Teachers service commission CEO, Nancy Macharia has pledged to give all universities and colleges a chance to offer the mandatory TPD courses to teachers next year, after the lapse of the current contract.

“After the expiry of the present one-year contract, the tender shall be floated again for all institutions to apply,” she said.

This comes after questions were raised on the criteria used to pick only four institutions, with top universities that offer education training being left out.

Only Kenyatta University, Riara University, Mount Kenya University and the KEMI were picked to train the teachers.

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She faulted the institutions for failing to bid when a tender to offer teacher professional training courses was floated.

According to Macharia, top universities and institutions that offer education training did not apply for the tender to offer Teacher Professional Development (TPD) courses.

Only eight universities applied, most of which did not meet the necessary requirements to offer TPD courses.

“We advertised and every teacher training institution was free to apply. But only eight universities applied. Some universities, the premier universities, did not even apply,” she said.

“Apart from Kenyatta University, even the University of Nairobi which is another university that offers education did not tender. If something like this is in the open and you do not tender, what can we possibly do?” she posed.

She added that continuous monitoring and evaluation of TPD will be done to ensure quality and receive feedback.

Macharia also said that the institutions will have to establish a center all sub-counties before starting to offer the courses.

“We emphasised that each of the institutions must have a presence at sub-county level because in as much as most part of the sessions would be done virtually, we wanted some part of training to be done face-to-face,” she said.

It emerged that some universities did not tender because they didn’t possess the required documents such as tax compliance papers from the Kenya Revenue Authority and audited accounts.

It is now emerging that the teachers service commission settled on the four institutions for refresher teacher professional development TPD module services after most of the institutions which were interested in the contract failed to meet the preset criteria.

According to the documents in possession of the TSC, four criteria guided the choice of the four institutions during the selection process and marks were allocated for each category.

The level of qualifications and competence of key personnel in the applying institutions held most of the points. This category was allocated 40 points and each institution had to demonstrate their competence in this category.

The second category, the adequacy and quality of the proposed methodology and work plan in responding to the terms of reference was awarded 20 points. was awarded 20 points.

The third category, the relevant experience of the institution in carrying out TPD programme were also allocated 20 points each.

According to fresh details, most of the institutions were locked out from the training of teachers due to lack of adequate infrastructure. TSC allocated this criterion 20 points and explained it was looking for institutions with adequate training centres at sub-county level with evidence of ownership, lease agreement or a memorandum of understanding between the institution and the intended training centre.

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Though successful institutions were expected to score 100 points, any institution that managed 85 points from these categories was allowed to proceed to the next evaluation stage. All these details are contained in a TSC document titled accreditation of service providers for refresher programme for registered teachers in Kenya.

‘special attention will, however, be paid to getting a firm that can offer the most within the available budget…’ reads part of the document.

Among institutions that sent their applications include Moi University, Alupe University, Riara University, Kenyatta University, Kenya institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), KEMI, French Embassy, Techno-Brain and Virtual Learning, Mount Kenya University (MKU), Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE), NOVEL Technology East Africa Limited, Global E-Schools and Community Initiatives, CORRAT Africa, British Council, Life Skills Promoters, Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA), among others.

However, Moi University, CEMASTEA, MKU, KISE, French Embassy, Riara University, Kenyatta University and KEMI were shortlisted.

Kenyatta University, Riara University, Mount Kenya University and the KEMI were picked to train the teachers.

TSC Code of Regulations for Teachers (2015) under Section 48 (2) says: “The commission shall approve training institutions to conduct teacher development programmes.”

Speaking during the launch of the TPD last week, TSC Chief Executive Nancy Macharia said infrastructure was a major criterion.

“We emphasised that each of the institutions must have presence at sub-county level because in as much as most part of the sessions would be done virtually, we wanted some part of training to be done face to face,” said Macharia.

The tender document expressly stated that proposals may be rejected at this stage of evaluation. In the eligibility criteria, TSC document calling for expression of interest said shortlisting shall only be done for institutions that will have demonstrated capacity to facilitate provision of the TPD training programme to all teachers at the sub-county level.

The document –TSC/EOI/03/2017-2018– also required the institutions to have a minimum of five years experience in conducting similar assignments.

TSC also required the institutions to provide evidence of financial ability in undertaking the assignment by attaching copies of audited financial statements for 2014, 2015 and 2016. Overall, TSC listed the expected output to include ability of the institutions to plan and organise venues for delivery of the TPD training and related programmes.

The Kenya Educational management institute, KEMI, has partnered with the Kenya universities and colleges central placement service, KUCCPS, to train all career guidance teachers in secondary schools. In most schools, the guidance and counselling teachers double up as career counselors, and therefore will be targeted for the training.

KEMI is a management development institute which serves as the capacity building agency of the ministry of education. The body is mandated to offer educational management training, conduct research and offer consultancy services to both public and private sectors.

The two bodies, KEMI and KUCCPS, have plans to design a training programme for all career guidance teachers in all secondary schools in Kenya. So far, no such training occurs, implying that career masters in most schools give career guidance through experience rather than skills or do not give career guidance at all. Some however organize career guidance workshops.  With the career guidance skills from KEMI, the targeted teachers will acquire the necessary skills to guide learners through their career choices so that they don’t commit mistakes that they will live with forever.

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KEMI and KUCCPS have not yet designed the contents of the short course, but are relying on the career guidance teachers themselves to contribute concerning the contents they want to be included in the career counselling course. This will be done through an online teacher needs assessment form that sub county KESSHA chairpersons will forward to the principals within their sub counties, who will in turn forward the same form  to their career guidance teachers. The form is in a link.

“The purpose of this letter therefore, is to request you to circulate the attached link to all principals within your jurisdiction who will in turn forward to the career guidance teachers for filling. We request the online TNA tool to be filled and submitted to KEMI by 14^th May 2021, “reads part of a letter written to the sub-count KESSHA chair persons, by the KEMI director.