School Reopening: Fresh Training for 18,000 Teachers

File image of a teacher and students in class
File image of a teacher and students in a class
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The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has announced fresh training for 18,000 primary tutors ahead of the January 2021 school reopening.

The training is set to equip teachers with skills to handle learners in the face of an on-going Covid-19 pandemic.  

Teachers in the lower classes are targeted in the program with tutors in both public and private schools set to undergo the training.

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Education CS George Magoha speaks to a student at Langas Primary School in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County on Friday, November 6, 2020
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TSC Director for Quality Assurance Ruben Nthamburi explained the need for fresh training for primary school teachers ahead of the Monday, January 4 reopening. 

"Due to the current situation that the country is facing, we require to re-engineer the teacher training modalities observing all the Ministry of Health guidelines.

"All the CBC training should involve the grade 4 teachers drawn from the private schools in all the zones," he explained.

The lower primary students are largely perceived to likely forget the Covid-19 prevention and control guidelines, hence the emphasis on this section of students.

Regional and County Educational directors have been directed to release two teachers in Grade 1 and 2, two teachers in Grade 4 and Headteachers for the training.

TSC is also looking to equip teachers with new modalities of teaching as the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) focuses on higher physical interaction compared to the 8-4-4 system. 

The arrangement of desks is also set to revert to the traditional style of facing the blackboard, a change from the learners facing each other around a table in CBC.

Certain subjects are also set to be taught differently in Grade 1 and 2 with mathematics having reduced interactivity than before.

The training is set to take place from Monday, December 21 to Tuesday, December 22.

This comes after TSC on Monday, December 7, announced a Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) training of 118,000 teachers countrywide.

A teacher and students inside a classroom at Kawangware Primary School, Nairobi, on October 5, 2015.
A teacher and students inside a classroom at Kawangware Primary School, Nairobi, on October 5, 2015.
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