Government Defends Entry Grade For TTC (C plain)
Allowing C plain entry grade to TTC (Teachers Training Colleges) will not lower the standards of teaching; CS Ezekiel Machogu.
According to Education CS Ezekiel Machogu, allowing students to enroll in Teachers Training Colleges with a mean KCSE grade of C plain does not diminish the qualifications necessary to teach the primary school curriculum.
The entrance conditions, which required learners to have earned a Grade C in every subject, were described by Machogu as being restrictive and punitive.
“Removal of the cluster requirements does not mean we are lowering the standards of teacher education and training,” Machogu said.
CS Machogu said some of the Primary school teachers in the ’70s and ’80s had not attained the equivalent of C Plain in the Secondary School certification yet were excellent teachers.
He said the removal of the clusters had led enrolment of 12,000 prospective teachers into TTCs, saying the cluster requirements led to a steep decline in enrolment.
“The teachers were more than the students, something that threatened the closure of TTCs,” Mr. Machogu said.
The Education CS made the remarks as he officially opened Mandera Training College on Tuesday this week.
Under the clustered requirements, applicants to TTCs need to have a mean grade of Plain and a score of C Plain in Mathematics, English, Kiswahili, Humanities, and Sciences.
Machogu said the Government will implement a recommendation by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) to the effect that recruitment into TTCs be pegged at C Plain without the clusters requirement.
He said the Mandera TTC had attracted only 23 students under the Cluster requirements but had now enrolled 668 students following the removal of the cluster requirements.
The 33 public Teacher Training Colleges had enrolled some 3,3,22 students under the cluster requirement but had since enrolled 18,670 students after the removal of the cluster requirements.
