Government Changes ICT Trainer For Teachers

Teachers taking ICT lessons.

Public primary school teachers have a new ICT trainer. It turns out that the government has put ICT training programs for the teachers in the hands of Teachers Service Commission (TSC). Previously, it was the Ministry of Education that was running the ICT training program directly and in collaboration with partners. But the ministry faced multiple challenges that prompted a shift in the training strategy.

As the teachers’ employer, TSC is said to be well-placed in handling the teacher training program. The one major area of problem for the Ministry of Education in the primary teacher ICT training program was inviting teachers for the trainings. Kihumba Kamotho, a TSC official in the communications department, said that shifting ICT training program for teachers from the ministry to the agency was the best move in ensuring smooth bridging of the digital gap among public school teachers.
But TSC has contracted a firm called Novel Technologies East Africa that will do the ICT training for teachers on its behalf. The first lot of teachers trained on ICT through TSC/Novel arrangement, about 12,000 of them, will complete their program on July 30.  The government trained about 60,000 public primary school teachers on ICT skills between 2013 and 2015.

Pupils taking computer lessons.

The move to streamline and simplify ICT training for primary school teachers comes at a time when the government has stepped up the rollout of laptops/tablets to primary school pupils as part of the digital education program. The government plans to issue all pupils in public primary schools with computing devices and also boost the churn out of digital content that will be accessed through the devices.  It is not clear whether the rollout of computers to primary school pupils will capture those in alternative schools, which mostly serve low-income areas.

An ICT training facility. Teachers are encouraged to train on ICT to improve their delivery of digital skills to learners.

The government recently issued updated guidelines for alternative schools, requiring them to register afresh with the Ministry of Education or risk losing their operating permits. 

Review of teacher-training course
The government is in the process of reviewing the curriculum for primary teacher training course commonly known as P1. Top education officials, including the Education CS Fred Matiangi, have hinted that the upgraded P1 curriculum will incorporate ICT skills as part of the efforts to close the technology gap in among school teachers. The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) this week submitted a proposal for the review of the country’s education system. The proposal is said to include recommendation to replace the current 8-4-4 system with a 2-6-3-3-3 system.  The 8-4-4 system has long been criticised for overloading learners but failing to equip learners with the right skills they need to face today’s fast-paced world.