Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia said they are ready to train teachers on the new curriculum early next month.
Macharia said TSC and the Ministry of Education are also working together to ensure a smooth learning transition for students to move on to the next grade.
She said more teachers would be trained from April to prepare for the next grade.
The lead group of the CBC curriculum, now in fifth grade, is expected to reach grade six on April 27, when schools reopen for a new academic calendar.
“We have already progressively trained over 200,000 teachers at CBC as we move to the next level and this April we will be training more to prepare for the next grade,” said Ms. Macharia.
He spoke in Nakuru after overseeing the distribution of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examination that began on Monday.
The commission is targeting to train 60,000 secondary school teachers to prepare for junior secondary. The teachers will be put on a crash program with the aim of preparing teachers to teach major subjects in junior secondary school next year.
The teachers who will be targeted in the first phase of the program will be those handling science and physical education subjects under the first group of Grade 6 Competency Based Course (CBC) graduates, who will sit their national assessment later this year.
Grade 6 learners will transition to junior secondary schools in 2023. Junior Secondary comprises of grades 7, 8 and 9.
According to a circular issued by TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia, the 60,000 teachers to be trained will be those handling biology/chemistry, physics/mathematics and physical education.
Biology and chemistry teachers will be equipped with expertise on how to handle integrative and health sciences, while those who teach physics and mathematics will be retrained to teach pre-technical and pre-vocational learning.
As per the circular, physical education teachers are expected to teach sports and physical education in secondary schools.
In April, retooling will take place in the form of a five-day face-to-face training, while continuing learning on new subject areas will be transferred online later.
The locations for the program across the country will be carefully selected to ensure that teachers can reach them easily. Ms Macharia was accompanied by Treasury Chief Administrative Secretary Eric Simiu Wafukho, who said the budgetary allocation was made to cover activities in the new school calendar.
“While there will be pressure on resources due to double intake, the government is ready and has included it in the budgetary allocation,” he said.
