The Changing Trends in the Development of Teacher Education in Kenya: The Role of the Teacher’s Service Commission

Abstract

The aim of this article is to locate the changing trends in the development of teacher education in Kenya by looking at the role the Teachers Service Commission has played. Kenya just like other countries of the world needs to transmit their cultures from one generation to the next. Formal schooling was introduced in Kenya in the second half of nineteen century by Christian missionaries. They established schools in which they were ‘teachers’. The ‘mission’ and ‘bush’ schools expanded rapidly and this led to the establishment of teacher education. During the entire colonial period, the missionaries and the colonial government employed primary schoolteachers. The African teacher service and the government employed European secondary school teachers. In1957, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) was established. The KNUT came up with decentralized system of handling teachers’ affairs. They pushed for the employment of teachers by a central body; this led to the establishment of the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) under an act of parliament (CAP 212) of the laws of Kenya in 1967.This paper traces the historical development of teacher education in Kenya. This includes primary teacher education, Diploma teacher education, Technical teacher education and Secondary school teacher education. The Teachers Service Commission over time has been coming up with academic requirements for the training of teachers. The institutions involved in the training of teachers especially universities for secondary schoolteachers have been having different entry requirements. The TSC being the only teacher employer in Kenya has rejected most of the teachers trained by universities who don’t meet its conditions. TSC has transformed over the years from merely serving as a staffing unit in the ministry of education to currently handling all that is stipulated in the mandate. Teacher education being a whole range of activities that constitute preparation for and improvement of the teaching profession, it is important that it be regulated, so that we are able to achieve vision 2030. Education is recognized as social pillar in Kenya’s vision 2030. Through the social, economic and political pillar, Kenya will become a middle income country with high quality life to its people. This paper traces the historical background of teacher education in Kenya, with a view to understanding the role of the Teachers’ Service Commission in its development and change over time.