TSC To Deduct Teachers’ Salary To Pay For TPD Training

The Teacher Service Commission, TSC, has launched a stakeholder forum for the Teacher Professional Development, TPD.  TSC sought feedback from stakeholders on how it can improve on the program which doesn’t seem to augur well with teachers.

Among the challenges TSC is faced with is how the program can be funded after only a few teachers registered with the four accredited service providers. The basic education chief administrator last week revealed that only 20,000 teachers have applied for the program.

The administrator who was speaking in Nandi County said that unskilled teachers are a threat to the implementation of the new curriculum. She added that teachers should seek funding from county bursaries and CDF to facilitate their training.

TSC received a slew of proposals for teachers to embrace TPD without feeling the financial burden. Stakeholders present presented their proposals and recommendations on the TPD program starting this December.

The event, held at the CEMASTEA ground in Karen, was also attended by teacher unions Knut (Kenya National Union of Teachers) and KEWOTA (Kenya Women Teachers Association), among others.

KNUT’s general secretary Collins Oyuu reiterated his support for the program but asked teacher employers to improve teachers’ pay for smooth implementation of the program.

He said that teachers should not be compared with other professionals like doctors and lawyers as such comparisons make the teacher smaller. KEWOTA president, Dorothy Muthoni urged the TSC to be more engaging in communicating new policies like the TPD.

He challenged the stakeholders to help devise ways of sourcing the funds required to launch the program. However, the proposals issued include reducing the annual leave allowance for TPD training to reduce the pinch of payment from the monthly salary of teachers.

Teachers earn leave allowance every February based on their workgroup. Should the proposal be adopted teachers in the lowest job group would lose power. 4,000 which is paid annually as a leave allowance.

However, some TPD service providers say they will spread it. 6,000 TPD fee for teachers to make payment easier.

KEMI, which is one of the institutes, says it accepts nominations for the program along with Sh. 500 per month. Service providers also say that starting this December the introductory module will be completely online to make them more locally available face-to-face training for teachers.