P1 Teachers Without DPTE Certificate Will Not Teach Starting 2024
From the next year, a primary school teaching licence will no longer be granted only on the basis of a PTE (Primary Teacher Education) certificate.
This information was obtained from a report released by Teachers Service Commission (TSC), the employer of teachers.
The Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) will be fully implemented in all primary schools from Grades 1 through 6, according to TSC, making primary school instructors with merely PTE credentials meaningless.
However, according to the Commission’s structure, P1 instructors who completed Competency Based Teacher Education (CBTE) will be hired.
These PTE instructors progressed to the latest DPTE (Diploma in Primary Teacher Education) certifications.
Additionally, it states that a diploma will serve as the lowest entrance level for the teaching profession. DPTE-certified teachers only will be given consideration for employment in primary schools.
Those hired will be assigned to job group C1, which means TSC will eventually abolish job group B5 for teachers, the existing entry-level position for primary school instructors.
Numerous primary and early childhood educators signed up to upgrade their certifications to the CBC Diploma.
Both P1 and ECDE instructors should take the required training in order to meet the demands of the new curriculum, according to a taskforce’s recommendation.
After completing their studies, the initial groups of trainee instructors received a diploma certificate from Knec.
Registration Fees for KNEC Assessments Under the DPTE Upgrade Programme
Assessment Fee for All Subjects, KSh12,000
Basic Fee Ksh1,200
Practicum Fee: Ksh 2,500
Total assessment fees Ksh15,700
The professional learning areas in the CBTEC have been updated to provide fresh content and to be in line with competency-based curricula.
Therefore, upgrading PTE teacher trainees will be excluded from the courses they had specialised in and take only those they did not take in the certificate course. In CBTEC, a primary school teacher will be grounded in all the subjects given in primary schools.
For DPTE, the upgrading programme lasts four school terms. All of the training-related subjects are taught by graduates for the upgrading programme.
The taskforce stated that distant learning and mixed learning will be taken into consideration in due time.
The following criteria must be met by P1 instructors who want to advance to Diploma Primary Teacher Education (DPTE):
1. The candidate must hold a current PTE Certificate.
2. The Teachers Service Commission must have registered the application.
3. The course will take 1500 hours to complete.
4. The programme must be entirely residential.
5. The candidate must complete all of the courses listed in the upgrading programme for the Diploma in Primary Teacher Education.
6. The trainees must complete a 300-hour teaching practicum.
7. The trainee must complete the stipulated evaluation by the Kenya National Examination Council as well as the necessary hours for course work in order to receive the diploma.
