CS Pushes for Lower Entry Grades for Teachers: Will Education Quality Be Affected?

The showdown between Kenya National Qualification Authority (KNQA) and Teachers Service Commission (TSC) regarding the minimum entry grade to Teachers Training Colleges is likely to determine the kind of legacy the education Cabinet Secretary (CS) is likely to leave behind.

The grade that qualifies one to study the education course and become a teacher has always been a C but KNQA recommendation for a review of the grade to D+.

The recommendation has created conflict between the two bodies as the Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia warned that those intending to join the colleges with KNQA’S revised grades risked of being locked out of employment.

Despite the poor performance in KCSE for the last three years, it’s difficult to see how somebody who is not performing in a field would assist somebody else in excelling in the same.

If you scored a D- in mathematics, why would you be tasked in teaching and getting anyone to score an A? No pun intended, let us all be realistic, and which formulas will you be using?

While addressing the education committee in the National Assembly, CS Amina indicated that the minimum entry grade for teachers training should be grade D as it would allow students from marginalized areas to have an opportunity to join teacher training colleges.

Kenyans being just themselves are likely to start ferrying their KCSE candidates whom they fear cannot manage to score above Cs to the marginalized areas to enable their admission into these colleges.

Each county in Kenya is faced by varying challenges and there is no way to measure which are heftier than others. What CS Amina is opening is a can of worms that is likely to rot the education sector. Different counties will demand certain consideration in not just the enrollment of colleges but into Universities too.

I do not underestimate the plight of the marginalized areas; the Government owes it to these people to improve these areas instead of giving favors because they have failed to deliver. Is there a part of Kenya that is more important than the other?

The move to lower grades for their college entry is simply a way of telling them that we understand they are poor performers and can never do better academically. CS Amina and KNQA are simply calling students from the marginalized areas academic dwarfs.