Kenya’s education sector is undergoing one of its biggest reforms in decades, yet the country’s teacher training system is struggling to keep pace.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba admitted that the government faces a shortage of 137,500 teachers, most urgently in STEM, vocational, and pre-technical fields. The gap is particularly worrying as the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) shifts learners into specialised senior school pathways from January.
While enrolment in teacher training institutions is rising, the distribution of specialisations is problematic. Universities report that 57.1% of education students are in arts, while only 29.3% are pursuing science-related fields. Postgraduate enrolment, which is vital for advanced specialisation, remains low.
The result is a mismatch between Kenya’s curriculum needs and the teachers being trained. Professor Julius Bitok, the Principal Secretary for Basic Education, stressed that training pathways must be redesigned to reflect the realities of the new curriculum. “We need proper training and employment strategies. For example, indigenous languages are now required under CBC, but no institution is preparing teachers for them,” he said.
The government is considering structural reforms, including the establishment of the Kenya Teacher Training College and the Kenya School of Teacher and Education Management. These institutions will coordinate training and retooling programmes, including a mandatory one-year retraining for teachers who graduated before 2023.
In addition, the entry grade for teacher training has been standardised to C (Plain) in KCSE, with subject-specific requirements in STEM to ensure quality. Teachers holding P1 and ECDE certificates will also be required to upgrade to diploma level.
Experts argue that Kenya must not only expand access to teacher training but also ensure strategic alignment between supply and demand. Without this, the competency-based reforms risk faltering due to poorly prepared teachers.
As the first CBC cohort prepares to enter senior school, the gaps in teacher training stand out as a critical weakness in Kenya’s education system—one that must be urgently addressed if reforms are to succeed.
