Technical Vocational and Education Training (TVETs) institutions will share training equipment with teacher training institutions located in the same geographical area PS has confirmed
Esther Muoria said that the ministry of education through her department will soon map out all the TVETs and teacher training institutions located in the same area to implement the directive.
She said the initiative is aimed to help teachers to get the technical skills and know how to implement the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) because TVETs already have the learning equipment.
Speaking WAS in Mombasa speaking in Mombasa during the official opening of a four-day annual conference for members of the Kenya Teachers Colleges Principals Association (KTCPA.
“We are going to partner with teacher training colleges as TVETs so that we can be able to use the equipment we have in our institutions together”
“We will help our teachers to get the technical skills and know how to implement the CBC curriculum because we have the equipment in our TVET institutions,” said Muoria.
So far, a total of 154 TVET institutions in the country have been equipped with the latest machinery to boost the skills of learners.
The institutions are now expected to produce graduates with hands-on experience and the requisite set of technical skills to meet the labour and industrial demands.
PS Muoria said that the education ministry was in the process of reducing the number of business courses offered by TVET institutions to encourage more STEM courses so as to have more graduates skilled according to labour market demands.
“We want to move away from theory teaching to practical teaching in our TVET institutions. Our very able CS Prof Machogu said that we should reduce business courses and encourage more Stem courses in TVET institutions and technical training colleges schools so that we have more skilled youth”
“What we want to achieve to a very large extent as a sector is skills for our young people. The skills will be taught mostly in the stem courses because we want to industrialize this country and we can only achieve this if we have technical courses being upraised,” Muoria said.
In a speech read on his behalf by the PS, Education cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu said that the CBC is a value-based curriculum that aims at empowering learners and youth with the requisite 21st century skills for their own development, and that of the nation.
He said that with the implementation of CBC, the potential of each learner is identified at an early age, and teachers play a central role in these processes by guiding the learner in the identification of different pathways based on their talents and potential.
This, he said, must be the teacher trainer’s driving force and desire to achieve in every trainee that passes through their hands as teacher educators.
“This Conference has come at an opportune time when you, as teacher educators, must chart the way forward in ensuring that the teachers you produce from your colleges are of high quality and are able to effectively implement the Competency Based Curriculum in the schools.”
“Your primary responsibility entails not only development of quality teachers for our schools, but also teachers with the ability to nurture the tender minds of our children from early years until they become skilled and responsible citizens of this great nation,” said Machogu.
Machogu said that the government will work closely with private TTCs by establishing communities of practice to complement each other’s efforts and learn from each other in order to provide quality and effective teachers for both public and private schools where Kenyan children attend.
He commended the TTCs for commencing the implementation of the Competency Based Teacher Education (CBTE) with the first cohort of pre-service and upgrade in 2021.
The first cohort of the upgrade trainees he said graduated in December 2022 and a number of them have already been employed by the Teacher Service Commission (TSC).
The Pre-service he said has completed two years and in September 2023, they will begin the third and final year.
“I have no doubt that teachers leaving your colleges at the end of the course will have been thoroughly prepared to implement the education reforms,” he said.
KTCPA Chairman Saul Barasa said that the conference was very crucial as members will discuss issues surrounding education reform as they affect teachers.
The conference is themed ‘Empowering The TeacherEducator In The Era Of Education Reform’.
“I can confirm to you that all teacher training colleges have embraced the new curriculum called the Competency Based Teacher Education Program,” said Barasa who is also the Chief Principal Kibabii DTC.
