The minimum requirement is now a mean grade of C (plain) in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination without additional subject requirements.
Also read: Full list of all Teacher Training Colleges, TTCs, in Kenya
As a result, the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (Kuccps) has opened the portal for applications and hopes to admit 13,439 teacher trainees into Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) and Diploma in Early Childhood Teacher Education (DECTE) programmes in 32 public colleges. According to the Kuccps portal, the cost of training for the first year of both the DPTE and the DECTE is Sh72,076.
The review of the entry grades is one of the key recommendations in the report of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) that is yet to be launched. However, piecemeal recommendations by the team have been implemented even without the formal launch of the report by President William Ruto, as expected.
The new admissions have done away with the subject cluster requirements previously used to admit students to the DPTE and DECTE programmes. Students were required to have a C (plain) grade in all the cluster subjects and also the same in English, Kiswahili, mathematics, a humanity and science subject, a combination that proved hard to strike.
Since the admission criteria was first used in 2021 as the Ministry of Education phased out the Certificate in Primary Teacher Training (CPTE), popularly known as P1, TTCs have failed to attract enough trainees. This raised concerns among stakeholders that the country may in the future lack enough teachers. There are currently, 3,922 students enrolled in TTCs against a capacity of 26,650.
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The higher requirements were introduced following recommendations by the Teachers Service Commission, which is mandated by law to advise the government on minimum teacher training requirements.
Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu launched the application for placement over the weekend when he officiated at a career mentorship day at Kangaru School, Embu County. He announced that there are 11,358 admission slots in the DPTE programme and 2,081 in the DECTE course.
Kuccps chief executive officer Agnes Mercy Wahome, who spoke at the same forum, said the portal will remain open until July 28, 2023.
“This opportunity is for qualified KCSE certificate holders including non-Kenyan citizens who sat the examinations in 2022 or earlier until the year 2000,” said Dr Wahome.