Setting entry grades to teacher colleges an expanded role of TSC

I write in response to an article by Prof Mohamed Elmi (Daily Nation, May 29).

I have worked as an educationist for over 25 years. Reading Prof Elmi’s letter, I observed that he missed crucial information regarding why D+ teacher trainees were discontinued from their primary teacher training programme.

The Constitution expanded the roles of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to include, inter alia, determining standards of education and qualifications of prospective people joining teacher training programmes.

Just like the Commission for University Education (CUE), which has set the minimum admission grade to university at C+, the TSC has a similar role.

In fact, the CUE also sets clusters of subjects and minimum grades per the cluster subject to be met for one to undertake a degree course.

Similarly, the TSC not only sets the minimum mean grade but also the threshold grades for the teaching subjects a trainee wishes to pursue.

The professor argues that KCSE grades are immaterial in admission into teacher training colleges. That argument is hollow.

In the developed countries, the best performers in high school are the ones selected for teacher training and are required to undergo rigorous on-the-job training to remain relevant.

Additionally, there are more than 300,000 trained and qualified teachers in Kenya who are unemployed.

The problem, therefore, is not a shortage of teachers to teach in northeastern region; it is insecurity.

If security is tightened and sustained in Northeastern, there are unemployed teachers willing to work there.

Prof Elmi further argues that failure to admit D+ students from Northeastern to fill the gap of teacher shortages there is further marginalisation of the region.

In my view, employing teachers whose entry of training levels are lower for the region compared to the rest of the country is, actually, what constitutes marginalisation. Our students and pupils in schools within the northeastern region must be taught by the same calibre of teachers as the rest of learners.

The question is, are we also asking for lower admission grades for doctors and other health professionals from Northeastern into colleges because the region also suffers serious shortage of medics?

Recently, two Cuban doctors were abducted by the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab militants, again whittling down the government’s efforts to provide quality healthcare in all parts of the country.

Insecurity is the underlying cause of poor service provision in the region and it is up to the concerned agencies and the residents to work in a concerted manner to alleviate the challenge.