Teacher Training Colleges Students’ Admissions To Be Done By KUCCPS

The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) will effective this year admit students to Teacher Training Colleges, TTCs. Kuccps has already held a stakeholder forum with Teacher Training Colleges, paving the way for the admission of new students to the TTCs through KUCCPS as from June this year.

This follows the recent expansion of the KUCCPS mandate where the Ministry of Education transferred the admission of new TTC students to the placement agency.

Ahead of the 2022 intake, the Ministry and KUCCPS convened a stakeholder forum for principals and deans of curriculum from all the 34 public primary teacher training colleges, to discuss a roadmap for the admissions and train the participants on the automated KUCCPS placement processes.

The TTC admissions were previously conducted by the Ministry of Education at the county headquarters, and involved applicants manually filling and submitting application forms, but will now be done online through KUCCPS systems.

Also read: 2022/ 2023 applications for TTC placement; Diploma teachers training colleges admissions

The stakeholder forum was officially opened by Ministry of Education Director-General, Dr. Elyas Abdi, who represented the Chief Administrative Secretary for Teacher Education, Dr. Sarah Ruto. Also present were high ranking officials from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and the principals’ association.

Dr. Abdi noted that the Ministry was pleased with how KUCCPS had been handling student placement, adding that a centralised student placement system was one of the best ideas ever to be implemented in Kenya. He expressed confidence that KUCCPS would deliver on the new task.

The KUCCPS Board assured the principals of an efficient process. “KUCCPS will undertake a well-coordinated and harmonised selection process in a very fair manner,” said Prof. Geoffrey Muluvi, a representative of Public Universities in the KUCCPS Board. He added that KUCCPS would be a reliable partner to the TTCs on student enrolment.

KUCCPS will add value to the TTC admission process by utilising its automated placement system to guarantee fair competition among applicants. Affirmative action will also be applied to benefit applicants with disabilities and those from marginalised regions, whose applications will be submitted and handled manually to take care of their special needs, according to KUCCPS Chief Executive Officer Dr Mercy Wahome.

“One thing we pride ourselves is being able to place students in the fairest way possible,” Dr. Wahome told the forum, which was held from January 17 and 18 at Thogoto TTC in Kiambu County. “We can assure the Ministry that KUCCPS is ready for the task.”

Thogoto TTC is one of the oldest teacher training institutions in Kenya that is among the 34 TTCs that will admit the second Diploma in Primary Education trainee cohort and the first group that will be admitted through KUCCPS. Some of these institutions are new and will be taking in trainees for the first time this year.

Before the TTC admissions were brought under KUCCPS, the placement agency coordinated the selection of students for government sponsorship to public and private universities, TVET colleges and the three secondary diploma teacher training colleges namely Kibabii, Kagumo and Lugari.

In the 2021 placement, the capacities at the three secondary diploma TTCs were filled 100% by KUCCPS, while the primary diploma TTCs attracted 990 trainees of the10,000 that the Ministry’s recruitment targeted.  With KUCCPS coming on board, the stakeholders expressed hope that the enrolment in the public primary TTCs will increase.

The 2022 primary TTC trainee placement will target secondary school leavers from the year 2000 to 2021. Application for the TTCs will open alongside that for universities and TVET colleges after the Marsh 2022 KCSE exam. It will be open to both Kenyans and non-Kenyans, who will apply for the slots alongside the 2021 KCSE candidates after the exams in June.

This will be the second cohort to be admitted to the public primary TTCs under the new Diploma in Teacher Education and Diploma in Early Childhood Development Education that was developed by the KICD.

At the workshop, principals and their deans of curriculum were sensitised on the KUCCPs mandate, how to navigate the KUCCPS portals, validation of courses and placement processes. They were also shown how to upload programmes and capacities on the KUCCPS database, and sensitised on application processing and inter-institutional transfers.

Through their association representative, the TTC principals welcomed the decision to hand over the trainee recruitment process to KUCCPS.