Kwale TTC to start operation in two weeks time

The newly-constructed Kwale Teachers Training College (TTC) in Kwale County will admit its first batch of students next month.

The college located in Bang’a in Kinango sub-county will be the second public TTC in the coastal region after the Mombasa-based Shanzu Teachers Training College.

The college will admit its first batch of 134 trainees, who are teachers duly registered by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), for a one-year upgrading programme.

Among the group of fresh admissions,38 students will be upgrading from certificates in early child development to diplomas in early child development while the remaining 98 will upgrade from P1 certificates to diplomas in teaching.

Early this year, the Ministry of Education directed all teachers training colleges to suspend training of P1 certificates and enrol students in diplomas in teaching with competency-based pedagogies.

Consequently, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) directed teachers with a P1 certificate, to upgrade to diplomas.

Kwale Teachers Training College Principal Hellen Machuka said the Education Ministry has put everything in place to see that the institution opens as scheduled.

She added that the TSC had dispatched admission letters to the selected students for admission on October 4.

“Everything is ready, we finally have the list of our students who shall be joining the college in two weeks’ time,” said Ms Machuka.

Machuka said TSC is working around the clock to post tutors to the institution before the admission week.

She said the hiring exercise was delayed when the TSC objected to the idea of sending employees to an institution that was not yet functional.

‘‘We are in touch with the commission. It has confirmed to us that we shall receive teaching staff by next week,” Machuka said.

In 2018, the county government passed a Bill paving way for the construction of the teacher’s training college at a cost of Sh300 million.