Why many students do not want to join teacher training colleges

There are 34 public pre-service primary teacher training colleges in Kenya today offering certificates in Primary Teacher Education.

These institutions are well distributed across the country. The current enrollment in the 34 colleges stands at 3,922 (14.7 per cent) against the expected capacity of 26,650 students. This means the total idle capacity in the pre-service primary teacher training colleges is 22,728 (85.3 per cent).

This clearly illustrates that citizens are either no longer interested in training as primary school teachers or they have lost hope in venturing into the sector for various reasons such as the long time they spend after training before being employed by government or due to the poor teachers' salaries.

In addition, there are three public diploma training colleges for teachers in secondary schools. The current enrollment in these colleges' stands at 1,293 representing (36 per cent). The expected capacity is 3,600 students. This implies that 2,307 (64 per cent) capacity at these colleges lies idle. A sorry state of affairs.

Again the decline in enrolment has been attributed to adverse effects of revised entry requirements for teacher training in TTCs. The entry grade for Diploma in Secondary Teacher Education (DSTE) - Science and Arts option is KCSE C+, which is the same as the entry requirement for Bachelor's degrees. The cluster requirement for admission to DPTE has also shrunk admissions to various colleges.

This comes at a time when government is struggling with the implementation of Junior Secondary Schools (JSS), the pioneer class in the reviewed curriculum (CBC). Among key areas that were proposed for attention were employment of more teachers.

In responding to this and in line with the president's promise to Kenyans in his education charter, dubbed Kenya Kwanza Education Charter, 35,550 teacher vacancies were advertised towards the end of 2022. Out of the total number advertised, only 10,000 were to be placed on permanent and pensionable terms.

What surprised the nation was that over 300,000 teachers submitted their applications for consideration. It implies there are so many teachers out here with qualifications to teach in schools that are in real need of their services but have not been given a chance. It consequently does not mean that the training of teachers should be halted by any means. We need to train more teachers and give them a chance to teach.

So then, why are Kenyans not going to teacher training colleges? The answers are clear. There are many who are willing to join pre-service primary teacher colleges, especially in ASALS, marginalised and insecurity-prone areas where other Kenyans might not be willing to work. These people need to be given special considerations that include lowering their entry grades on affirmative grounds.

A conversation on whether there is a relationship between the entry grade of a trainee into a teacher training college and the quality of teaching has been ongoing. The trainer of teachers - the Ministry of Education - had at a point considered lowering the entry grade of trainees to D+ for primary teacher education so as to have disadvantaged citizens from marginalised areas get trained in 2016.

This was vehemently opposed by the teachers' employer, citing teacher quality as the reason. This matter went to court and led to disqualification of those who had already reported to colleges for training.

The matter has never been revisited as insecurity continues to scare non-local teachers from working in those areas. With this argument obtaining, the number of trainees in the areas in question has continued to shrink, posing a threat to the sector.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers maintains a strong position that a country that respects education and depends on the same for development should at all times have enough trained and qualified teachers able to teach all levels of learning in both the basic and higher levels of learning.

Delocalisation as a policy has been done away with, meaning the balancing effect the employer was using to have teachers staffed away from their homes is no longer in practice. Lack of teachers shall continue to be experienced if something is not done about training more teachers and employing the already trained ones.

With the review of education, which has brought in a competency-based approach, more teachers are needed to handle learners than before. The recommended ratio stands at 22:1 unlike the current one which is 40:1.

As the curriculum and the system of education changes to suit the new world order, so are the approaches and pedagogy of teaching, which means therefore that trainings are going to be regular so that continuous refresher courses are conducted to equip teachers with knowledge and skills needed to actualise the present expectations of teaching and learning.

Training and development helps companies gain and retain top talent, increase job satisfaction and morale, improve productivity and earn more profit. This must not lack in the education sector.