Court declines to stop start of teacher refresher courses

Corporate

Court declines to stop start of teacher refresher courses

Friday October 01 2021

Universities are free to admit teachers for a mandatory refresher training course after the High Court declined to stop the scheme that require tutors to be retrained.

Justice David Nderitu of the Employment and Labour Court declined to halt the roll-out of the programme following a petition from an education consultant, Joseph Karanja.

The refresher course tagged Teacher Professional Development (TPD) will be modular-based and aimed to boost tutors’ skills and guide their promotion.

The judge ruled that due to the weight of the orders sought and its effects, Mr Karanja ought to serve Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and other respondents in the case, for a hearing by all parties.

Kenyatta University, Mount Kenya University, Riara University, and the Kenya Education Management Institute were selected to offer professional courses for teachers.

Mr Karanja sought orders to stop TSC from rolling out the programme citing lack of public participation as provided under Article 232 of the Constitution.

He added that teachers and other stakeholders in the sector were not engaged in the development of the content of the modules.

Regulations 48 of the TSC code of Regulations 2015 stipulate that every teacher is required to undertake the teacher professional development programme, which will determine among other issues, the promotion.

The in-service training lasts five years and teachers will be required to take five modules, which will cumulatively be undertaken for 30 years.

The programmes were introduced in 2018 to replace the schemes of service, which guided promotions, but they immediately ran into stiff opposition from the Kenya National Union of Teachers, which insisted that it was TSC’s duty to boost the capacity of its staff at its own cost.

Teachers will be required to pay Sh6,000 each year to complete the five-year course.

The refresher courses will be a requirement for teachers and will enable them to renew their practising certificate every five years.

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