The High Court has directed the Ministry of Education to urgently convene a meeting with all stakeholders to harmonise the regulations on admission to Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs).
This comes as leaders from the North Eastern region call on the state to shield the region from high cut-off points.
Judge Byram Ongaya gave the Education Ministry 14 days to find a solution on the rejected proposal to lower the minimum entry points to teachers colleges in marginalized regions.
This is after the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) moved to court to stop the directive by Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed.
CS Amina had directed that D+ students seeking to join teachers training colleges (TTC) can now join after the government reviewed entry grade from C to D+.
The counties that were set to benefit from the new directive are from marginalised regions such as Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, Tana River, Turkana, Samburu, Isiolo, Lamu, and West Pokot counties.
During the case hearing, the court heard that the CS had deliberately defied court orders issued on December 20, 2018, directing the CS to urgently convene a meeting of all stakeholders.
The Ministry of Education through its lawyer denied disobeying court orders and requested to be given 14 days to comply.
Justice Ongaya granted the application by the CS and ordered for the case to be mentioned on January 21.
While issuing the directive, CS Amina said marginalised counties such as Garissa, Mandera, and Wajir have been affected by teachers’ shortage after non-local teachers fled the region due to various issues such as security.
She said the move to lower the entry points was aimed at ensuring the counties get enough local teachers to improve the quality of education.
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