Members of august house have asked the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to organise a legal documents that will facilitate the government to pay annual refresher training fees for tutors.
Omboko Milemba, who is also Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) chairman said the money ought to be paid by the State through TSC.
“TSC should now go back to prepare a legal document that led to the TPD programme, explain how the training fees was arrived at and also make a requisition for that money,” said Milemba.
National Assembly Education Committee members put TSC Chief Executive Nancy Macharia to task for not including the money as a budgetary requirement.
Macharia was also asked to explain how the training fees was arrived at, as MPs argued that even school fees and university fees are highly regulated.
“We want to know why TSC has not factored in this money in its budget statement so that it can be an independent budget line funded by the government,” said Florence Mutua, chairperson of the committee.
MPs asked Macharia to prepare and submit a legal framework that would enable government foot the training bills. She had appeared before MPs to defend TSC budget requirements.
MPs argued that all levies are determined by Parliament and sought to know the formula used by TSC to cap the training fees. Macharia said the TPD is anchored in law under Section 35(2) (a) of the TSC Act.
Each of the 340,000 teachers are required to undertake mandatory professional courses that will inform their promotion and professional growth.
The refresher courses dubbed Teacher Professional Development (TPD) have been organised into chapters that will be taken every year at a cost of Sh6,000.
This means that in an entire teaching career, each teacher will be required to take five modules within 30 years, translating to fees of about Sh180,000.