Below is the full Ministry of Education’s Circular on the upgrade course.
TO: REGIONAL DIRECTORS OF EDUCATION
COUNTY DIRECTORS OF EDUCATION
SUB-COUNTY DIRECTORS OF EDUCATION
RE: UPGRADE DIPLOMA PROGRAMME FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATION (ECTE) AND PRIMARY TEACHER EDUCATION (PTE) FOR THE YEAR 2021
The meeting held on 15 July 2021 at Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) chaired by the Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) and attended by a representative of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and KICD and the Ministry discussed the upgrade program for teachers.
The Ministry is now in the process of advertising the upgrading Diploma program for the year 2021 as stated above.
The upgrade Diploma program due for advertisement will be for the trained teachers who are not in service and wish to upgrade from ECDE Certificate to Diploma in Early Childhood Teacher Education (DECTE) from Primary Teacher Education Certificate to Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) respectively.
All teachers in service with Teacher Service Commission (TSC), County Governments, and Private Schools will be expected to start the blended upgrade program when the school calendar normalizes having been disrupted by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The purpose of this letter is to request you to communicate to all Headteachers in your jurisdiction who should subsequently inform their staff.
Julius Juan
Principal Secretary.
TSC promoted all P1 teachers (Job Group G) to Diploma grade (job grade B5) and phased out the P1 job group G.
The training that the tutors will attend will be an induction and not a strict regular exam. This means that teachers who will participate in the induction have been guaranteed a pass.
However, despite the Commission saying that it will not recruit any teacher without a Diploma, TSC did reveal via their Facebook account that the changes they are planning will not be instantaneous and that they will take time.
“Even if changes may come, they will be gradual. For now, the issue is at the debate level. No final word yet,” said the Commission via their Facebook account.
