The Teachers Service commission has scrapped the Bachelor of Education Science and Bachelor of Education Arts as a required course for teachers.
Alternatively, those who wish to pursue teaching and be registered as teachers in Kenya will now be required to pursue Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science for 3 years. They will then attend a postgraduate diploma for 1 year before being registered by TSC.
As reported by Daily Nation, TSC Quality Assurance Director Reuben Nthamburi, the new directive will take effect from September 2021. Anyone who wants to join the university and pursue teaching from then will be required to apply for a Bachelor’s degree in either B.A. or B.Sc. instead of B.Ed.
Nthamburi said that the new changes are informed by the need to train qualified teachers to implement the new competency based curriculum (CBC).
He said, “In order to professionalise the teaching service and improve the quality of education, the commission needs to review entry grades to the teaching service and advice the national government. This will raise the standards of the teaching professional and attract more quality grades.”
There will be new course entry requirements going forward, but for now the KUCCPS requirements for the aforementioned courses is C+ overall grade and B- in either arts or sciences. The Bachelor of Education course was introduced in 1972, with UON’s Kenyatta College, now upgraded to Kenyatta University, being the first institute to offer the course.
Lecturers and university officials have opposed the move, suggesting that it would spell doom to thousands of people employed in faculties of education across the country.
The TSC’s move comes days after the Ministry of Education closed down over 30 schools in Nakuru that did not meet the required CBC Standards.
Accordingly, the scrapping of Bachelor of Education to give way for Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science is intended to improve the quality of education in line with the CBC standards. But how will this work?
Time will tell.
