At least 110,000 secondary school teachers who will handle junior secondary schools are targetted to undergo a ten month upgrading programme begining February next year.
The teachers will be retooled on how to handle Grade 7, 8 and 9 which are junior secondary classes.
The training targets secondary school teachers who will be charged with teaching subjects under the new curriculum in junior secondary section.
In February this year, Education Cabinet Secretary, George Magoha, said the 10-month training for teachers will help in handling the upcoming Grade 7 learners.
Speaking at Kapsabet Girls High School in Nandi County on February 14, Magoha said that the training will take place between the month of February and December 2023.
In 2023 Grade 6 learners will transition to Junior secondary schools. Junior secondary section comprises of Grades 7, 8 and 9.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) says the 110,000 secondary school teachers will face retraining to enable them cope with the demands of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
TSC says new learning areas introduced under the system have made it mandatory for all teachers to go back to school to gain skills on how to handle the subject adjustments as the secondary schools prepare for a double intake in 2023.
In a letter to Basic Education Principal Secretary Dr Julius Jwan, TSC Chief Executive Nancy Macharia says there are some new subjects which require teachers to be trained and hired.
Those requiring special attention include pre-technical and pre-vocational education, life skills, agriculture and health education.
Others are optional subjects such as indigenous languages, Kenya sign language, visual arts and performing arts.
Dr Macharia says all home science and biology teachers will have to be retrained to enable them handle health education, those in social studies must be taught how to teach new content on citizenship while those for sports and physical education must be enabled to deal with sports and health.
The commission recommends an overhaul of the teacher education curriculum to meet the special demands of CBC.
“We advise and recommend that the teacher education curriculum should be made flexible and aligned to enable a single teacher to teach a variety of subjects,” she says in the July 26 letter, which is an official advisory on the teacher preparation and requirements as the country gears up for the establishment of junior and senior secondary schools in under two years.
Currently, teachers are trained to teach at least two subjects but the demands of the CBC now make it necessary to widen the teaching areas.
Some of the subjects introduced under the new system and that have no teachers include leatherwork, wood technology, hairdressing and beauty therapy, plumbing and ceramics and welding fabrication.
Others are mandarin, sports teachers, performing arts and visual and applied arts.
Dr Macharia says teachers in various subjects that have been adjusted or adopted new learning areas will be retrained across the country.
They include those for business studies, mathematics, physical sciences, English and literature, Kiswahili, sign language, Arabic, French, German, Agriculture, History, CRE, and building construction.
Others are Islamic Religious Education, Hindu Religious Education, home economics, aviation, electricity and metal technology.
The Commission has also announced that it will train around 60,000 secondary school teachers on its payroll in April this year on the new curriculum.
The teachers will be put in a crash programme aimed at equipping them to teach key subjects in the junior secondary school next year.
The teachers who will be targeted in the first phase of the programme will be those handling Science and Physical Education subjects under the first cohort of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) graduates of Grade 6 who will sit their national assessments later this year.
The 60,000 teachers to be trained will be those handling Biology/Chemistry, Physics/Mathematics, and Physical Education according to a circular released by TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia.
Biology and Chemistry teachers will be equipped with expertise on how to handle integrated and health science while those teaching Physics and Mathematics will be retooled to teach pre-technical and pre-vocational education.
Physical Education teachers are expected to teach Sports and Physical Education in secondary schools according to the circular.
In April, the retooling will be in form of five day face to face training while subsequent continuous learning on the new subject areas will shift online.
Already upgrading programme for primary school teachers kicked off and the candidates will sit for their final assessment and practicum this year.
KNEC will administer the summative assessment to registered teacher trainees in 2022 upon completion of their in-college training. Thereafter they shall proceed for the practicum.
The upgrading programme for primary school teachers take 4 terms for DPTE (Diploma Primary Teacher Education) and 5 terms for DECTE (Diploma Early Childhood Teacher Education).
Both will have course work and a full term for practicum. Graduates for the Upgrading Programmes shall be expected to teach all the subjects offered in the area of training.
Upon successful graduation the trainee teachers will be issued with a Diploma certificate.