Teachers Face New Training Requirements Under Proposed Law

A new piece of legislation before Parliament could reshape teacher preparation in Kenya from the ground up, touching everything from how trainee teachers are educated before they ever step into a classroom to how serving teachers keep developing throughout their careers.

The Pre-Service Education and In-Service Training Bill, 2026 (National Assembly Bill No. 52 of 2026), sets out to create a formal legal framework governing both pre-service teacher education and ongoing in-service training for teachers and education managers alike.

At its core, the Bill ties teacher registration directly to training. Anyone hoping to register as a teacher would first need to complete pre-service education in line with the Teachers Service Commission Act, effectively making structured training a prerequisite, not an afterthought.

Under the proposed law, pre-service education would follow programmes, curricula and support materials developed by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, tightening the link between what trainees learn in college and what’s actually expected of them once they’re in front of a class.

The idea is to bring teacher preparation fully in step with the Competency-Based Education approach, so that new teachers are genuinely equipped to handle a curriculum built around competencies, hands-on learning and measurable outcomes, rather than playing catch-up once they’re hired.

Perhaps the most striking proposal in the Bill is the creation of an entirely new institution: the Kenya Teachers Training College. This body would take charge of delivering pre-service education, carrying out research, and advising the Cabinet Secretary for Education.

Beyond training, the college is envisioned as a unifying force, bringing consistency to training standards, curricula, assessment and quality assurance across what is currently a fairly fragmented landscape of teacher training institutions.

The Bill also rethinks how training programmes are structured. Notably, it proposes merging pre-primary and primary teacher training into a single, consolidated Diploma in Teacher Education for Pre-Primary and Primary, a change that would likely reshape the pathways prospective teachers currently choose from.

For those already teaching, the reforms don’t stop at the classroom door. The Bill lays out a framework for continuous professional development that would extend beyond regular teachers to include education managers and school leaders as well.

There’s also a broader implication buried in this: by formalising ongoing training as part of a teacher’s career, the Bill signals a shift away from treating initial qualification as the finish line — with possible knock-on effects for how teacher licensing works down the line.

Quality assurance features prominently too. The Bill provides for regulating and monitoring teacher training programmes, which would directly affect how colleges and training institutions operate and how their standards are enforced.

All of this is unfolding against the backdrop of Kenya’s continued rollout of Competency-Based Education, with policymakers keen to strengthen how well-prepared teachers are and how effectively the curriculum gets delivered on the ground.

Still, the proposed changes are likely to raise real questions about who gets access to teacher training, how students currently enrolled under the old system will transition, and whether the resources needed to actually pull this off are there.

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