I greet you all Transformed and Transforming people gathered in this hall
In case you wondering why some of you are Transformed while others are Transforming, let me remind you that this year’s theme for the World Teachers Day 2022 is – Transformation of education begins with the teachers and since all of us here are either teachers or have passed through the hands of a teacher, I feel it is befitting to categorise us into transforming or transformed more so, at this point when our education system is experiencing a robust engagement in preparation for the next face of the curriculum.
I sincerely thank the TSC through Dr Nancy Macharia for bringing all the stakeholders together in marking this day.
This day gives us the opportunity to celebrate the over 70 million teachers globally and hundreds of thousands in the country by recognizing their contribution and putting a spotlight on the incredible responsibility that they bear in ensuring that our children and youth are transformed through education challenges notwithstanding.
Allow me to a delve into an issue I raised a few days ago on the Press concerning Competency Based Curriculum (CBC). As a teacher, I know CBC holds the key to transforming our society and, as we celebrate our teachers, let’s hear the concerns stakeholders in order to make CBC better: we cannot afford at this point to throw away the baby and the birth water. It is my sincere belief that the 49-member team the President gazetted recently will provide an opportunity to stakeholders to address the gaps that exist.
To this end, I am glad that among the areas that the Team will look at includes Technical Vocational Educational and Training (TVET) Institutions. These middle level institutions provide the much needed human resource capacity to handle the emerging needs of our society. In developed countries such as Finland, TVET is a great deal and through legislation, they have allowed TVET graduates to further their studies at Universities and increased funding for the TVET institutions to ensure marketability and professional development.
On the same breath, I call upon reconsideration of the place of ECDE teachers who have been left at the mercy of Counties. If the education system is one, they they must be treated equally like the rest of us and with better working conditions and remuneration.
Even though various studies have concluded that teacher quality is the single most important in-school factor that influences student achievement and teachers remain under-recognized.
However, the teaching profession is often not an appealing career for the best students going into tertiary education. I therefore want to ask every leader present here to think of ways of making the teaching profession attractive to the next generation.
As KEWOTA, I assure you all of our commitment to working together with all of the education stakeholders to add more value to teacher.
I thank you all and God bless you.
Benta Opande
CEO- KEWOTA
