Bachelor of Education Degree Scrapped: The Teachers Service Commission is making plans that will see the Bachelor of Education degree banned from its list of acceptable degrees. In its place, the commission will have teachers pursue regular arts or sciences degrees. After graduation, these teachers will then take on a post-graduate diploma in order to qualify for registration as teachers in Kenya.
This is according to a shocking revelations that were published by the Daily Nation on Thursday. This is not the first time that attempts at scrapping Bachelor of Education are being made. In 2019, proposals by Education ministry policy experts had recommended that the popular B.Ed be abolished and replaced with a five-year rigorous teacher training programme.
Under the proposal, secondary school graduates who qualify to join university will do basic degrees in either science or arts before proceeding for a one-year postgraduate diploma training. The TSC would then enroll them as teachers after successful completion of the postgraduate diploma.
The government, in what appeared to have been borrowed heavily from the training of advocates, will establish the Kenya School of Education to offer final exams and certification to trainees joining the teaching profession. The five years would be divided into two tiers. The students will first be required to complete a bachelor’s degree in either science or arts in two subjects they wish to teach.
Education experts now say the proposed policy is not being advanced because the Education degree is no longer marketable, but to professionalize and regulate secondary school teacher training. The B.Ed was introduced in Kenyan universities in 1972.
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Traditionally, the majority of secondary school teachers are trained at public universities and diploma colleges and are required to specialise in two teaching subjects. Those trained in public universities spend four years while those in diploma colleges train for three years before receiving certification.
This means, at the end of their four years in universities, the graduates can opt to take the state licensing exam and become fully certified teachers by attending KSE. This is similar to the Kenya School of Law where law graduates go after completing an undergraduate degree from recognised universities to be prepared for admission to the bar. Bachelor of Education Degree Scrapped.
