All teachers to pay for promotion training

More than 312,060 teachers will pay for six professional development promotion training programmes that will also determine their promotions.

Teachers Service Commission (TSC) chief executive Nancy Macharia said teachers would be required to undergo the professional upgrade course during holidays and cater for expenses despite opposition from the tutors.

The TSC in April unveiled a new policy that requires the teachers to undertake the training after every five years or face the sack.

“You are required to undertake the TPD (Teacher Professional Development) training during the holidays and pay for yourselves,” Dr Macharia told teachers in Mombasa Wednesday.

Each level of the training will take five years and is structured such that teachers will transit from one stage to the next until the sixth during their teaching careers spanning 25-30 years. The TSC boss said teachers who fail to undergo the training would be deregistered.

“This is a mandatory programme, those who will not undergo it will be dealt with according to the code of regulation for teachers and TSC Act, which may involve being kicked out of service or sacked,” said Dr Machari.

The training will also influence how teachers move up the 11 job grades and higher pay that comes with promotions, she added.

“A teacher entering at Teacher Professional Development level one will be required to complete seven sections of module one to be re-certified and progress to level two. This will also inform career progression,” states the policy whose development the Unicef supported.

Teachers have criticised the commission for coming up with a policy without proper consultation.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary-general Wilson Sossion said the teachers would only undergo the training if the government pays for it.