The Employment and Labour Relations Court has declined to suspend the implementation of the Teacher Professional Development  programme, which was launched by the teachers service commission on 24^th September 2021.

Justice David Nderitu has however certified a case challenging the implementation of the Teacher Professional Development Programme as urgent and directed Joseph Karanja, the petitioner, to serve all the parties before the hearing scheduled for October 7. According to Judge Nderitu, the issues raised in the petition are weighty.

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Karanja is expected to file and serve the Teachers Service Commission, Education Cabinet Secretary, Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers, Kenya National Union of Teachers, Kenyatta University, Mt Kenya University, Riara University and Kenya Education Management Institute as respondents.

“The petitioner is ordered to serve the pleading on all the parties for the hearing of the said notice of motion inter-parties,” ordered the judje.

According to Karanja , the decision to have teachers undergo mandatory refresher training is gross violation to their rights. TSC argues that that professional development training programme will be used to determine promotions and continued employment of teachers.

Teachers were required to undertake in-service training lasting five years, upon which their teaching certificate shall be renewed.

During the period, teachers are expected to undertake six modules, each lasting for five years. Teachers are required to pay Sh6,000 annually for the training. The training, as indicated, will be offered at Kenyatta University, Mt Kenya University, Riara University and Kenya Education Management Institute.

He said teachers and education stakeholders were not engaged by TSC in the development of the content of the module to be undertaken in the professional development programme.

“The rollout of the programme by TSC was done in secrecy and without the involvement of the teachers, who are the primary subjects of the programme,” he stated.

He said TSC violated the Constitution in appointing the listed institutions to offer the programme.

Karanja said most teachers are old and cannot complete the training while still in service, thus excluding them from further promotion.

He now wants the court to issue a declaration that TSC, in formulating and seeking to implement the teacher professional development programme, failed to observe and uphold the Constitution.

The reality of going back to the classroom for TPD courses will not only come strike teachers with the shock of spending extra money and time, but also the shock of identifying areas that need research in their work stations or profession, and conduct research to come up with solutions.

The teachers service commission secretary Nancy Macharia has praised the TPD move, saying it will make teachers updated with the current education trends and impart researching skills among them. According to Macharia, the new approach will ensure teachers are also engaged in conducting research projects and writing academic research papers, a move she says will see them improve the teaching quality in schools.

The act of writing research and academic papers is practiced in the universities as a way of ensuring that lecturers remain relevant in the various areas they teach. Universities do not entertain dons who fail to conduct at least research in three years. Promotions in universities depend on a number of things, including the amount and quality of research one has conducted.

An official from TSC has confirmed that TSC plans to make schools resemble universities, where teachers will be consistently engaged in research to improve the quality of what they offer to students. The commission is arguing that a teacher is a researcher. It is due to this thinking that research will form part of the TPD content in the first module, and teachers will be required to conduct a research study as a requirement to certification.

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Giving more reasons for introducing the TPD courses, Macharia insisted that the teaching profession must just be like other professions, whose professionals are skilled. She said the decision was necessitated by the need to have teachers follow the steps of other careers which include engineering and law.

“The move will see teachers put up to date with their profession. In addition, they will also work like other professionals including engineers and lawyers,” Macharia said.

She said it only through the TPDs that she will be able to prove during negotiations for salary increment that  teachers are skilled. “ the commission has in the recent past faced challenges during negotiations for teachers as they are referred to as semi-skilled,” revealed Macharia.

The teachers service commission on Wednesday rolled out refresher courses, which will be pursued by all teachers in selected universities.

Its now emerging that one of the most crucial requirements for the TPD courses is the TPD mobile App. What this implies is that all teachers who are willing to secure their teaching licences and registration numbers will first have to acquire a smart phone, of specifications that can be used for studying.

Mount kenya university had gone ahead of the three other institutions in the race for hunting ‘students’ and advertised its ongoing intake for TPD courses, even without a clear indication of when the courses are likely to start.

Among the requirements that Mount Kenya indicated, which was confirmed as very important by a TSC staff is the TPD mobile app. The App, which will allow easy application and students onboarding process, has the following features;

• Pay bill integration for easy application
• Registration process
• Integration with e-Learning to allow access to resources
• Communication, Feedback and progress monitoring. Certification
• Digital transcripts to be issued to students upon completion of a chapter and the same shared with the Teachers Service Commission.

To install TPD mobile, go to the google playstore in your android or windows phone and search.

The structure and design in the four universities is almost similar; physical face to face classes during the holidays and virtual classes during school days. This can be interpreted to mean that for 30 years, teachers will not find time to other things except fulfilling the requirements of the employer.

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TPD OBJECTIVE

The overall objective of the TPD is to improve learning outcomes in Kenyan schools by:

• Institutionalizing a culture of life-long learning of teachers and instructional leaders
• promoting institution-based professional learning practices;
• Equipping teachers and instructional leaders with 21st century skills;
• Building capacity for teachers and instructional leaders’ competencies in creating supportive, safe and healthy learning environments.

Upon successful completion of the TPD program, the teacher shall be issued with a teaching certificate renewable every five years.

COURSE STRUCTURE

1. Introductory module

This program will introduce teachers to Teacher Professional Development and to the Seven (7) Kenya Professional Teaching Standards (KePTS). The introductory module has five (5) 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. The content and activities are applicable to real-life situation of a practicing teacher, are self-directed and experiential. They reflect a diversity of perspectives and address the knowledge, skills and attitudes required of a teacher in line with the TPD Policy Framework.

2. Six modules (Level 1-6)

After the introductory module, the teachers and the instructional 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.

Mode of delivery

Blended mode consisting of face-to-face (On site) shall be done during school holidays and online learning where the teachers and instructional leaders shall access the online content any time anywhere via modern technologies.

Training design

MKU will use a combination of various interactive learning platforms that are technology-driven to deliver an awesome learner experience through self- paced learning.

The University will use Microsoft teams for interactive video sessions, Question and answer sessions, breakout sessions, and short recorded videos amongst other platforms on certain topics to guide the learner.