Teachers Lack Effective Communication Skills, TSC
The Teachers Service Commission, TSC, has remained firm on the entry requirements into the teaching profession, insisting that some teachers are poor at communication.
In what seems like a move to ashame teachers, TSC revealed that some of the letters teachers write to the Commission have a lot of spelling mistakes.
According to TSC Director of Quality Assurance and Standards (QAS), Dr. Reuben Nthamburi, TSC wants to professionalize the teaching service to match other professions like law, engineering and medicine. Already, the commission has told universities the kind of a teacher they want.
Related stories:
Teachers Pressure Group Hints At Forming A union, Urges Teachers To Dump KNUT and KUPPET
Teachers Now Allowed To Pay Ksh. 20 Daily For TPD Modules
Teachers Who Fail Consistently in TPD Tests Likely To Be Removed From Payroll
We are not planning to scrap hardship allowance From Any Hardship area, clarifies TSC
The main challenge that TSC is facing currently, according to Nthamburi is that most teachers cannot communicate effectively and that is what prompted Kenya University and College Central Placement Service, KUCCPS, to strictly put Grade C (plain) as a minimum requirement in both English and Mathematics for any applicant who wants to pursue a degree in education.
“You saw in the papers when we did say we want the BED programme properly reorganized, what came out? The outcry; that this can’t work. You know change is painful and always resisted. But what we are saying TSC is the client. I am the one who takes the teacher,’ said Nthamburi.
“The challenges we are having today, if you look at some of the letters the teachers are writing, they have very many spelling mistakes…We want to have qualified teachers who can communicate well,” added Nthamburi.
Nthamburi was addressing the Senate Committee on Education chaired by Dr. Alice Milgo and Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), where he represented the TSC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Nancy Macharia.
The director maintained that the teaching service can only be professionalized and can only match other professions if the entry requirements are strictly observed and boosted by a professional development training, which in this case is the Teacher Professional Development, TPD. Before then, TSC will not think of remunerating or motivating 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 want to get a professionalized teacher, and that one we are not relenting on it,”
Nthamburi added that it’s the role of universities to understand the new areas and emerging issues in education so as to align their content accordingly. He further revealed that TSC has previously held separate meetings with all the Vice-Chancellors of universities and soon they will meet all the University VCs and the Faculty Deans to deliberate on how they will align their courses.
“Some Universities have run very quickly, they have begun aligning their degree courses to CBC,” said Dr. Nthamburi.
