Teachers may not go for Teacher Professional Development (TPD) this coming April after MPs called for an immediate stop to the TPD courses until proper stakeholders’ consultations are undertaken.
The legislatures also want the training fees of Sh 6,000 paid by the government and the list of institutions offering the refresher courses expanded.
The National Assembly Education Committee tabled a report in the House on March 3, just before legislators went for a two weeks’ recess.
Late last year over 300,000 TSC employed teachers received a sigh of relief after the labour law court nullified Teacher Professional Development (TPD) modules.
On Friday the Labour Law Court pointed out that the TSC initiated program is not valid due to lack of regulation from the teachers’ employer on the soad program.
The teachers professional development modules which was to officially start this December has now been put on hold.
The labour lae court ruling was nit welcomed by TSC. The teachers’ employer body’s attorney Timon Oucho vowed to appeal as he cited mistakes in the labour court ruling.
The court ruling comes at a time when the TSC had threatened teachers planning not to follow TPD that they risk losing their jobs. “At least teachers can breathe a sigh of relieve and smile because the program was too expensive and they were to do it from own pockets,” said Hussein.
TSC Chief Executive Officer Dr. Nancy Macharia thought the TPD would be beneficial to teachers as it would continually update their skills and make them relevant in the teaching field not considering that the program may be too expensive for teachers who were unprepared for the program.
“Ultimately the court has heard our call by temporarily suspending the TPD as we await for the appeal at least this December will not be in TPD track suit,” one teacher from Tana said.
