If you want to increase your chances of being employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), you need to enrol in the enhancement course in Kenya for teachers and educators. The course is appropriate for teachers who had initially done one teaching subject and are required to have two teaching subjects or those who want to change one of their teaching subject.
The Ministry of Education has time and again reiterated the need for teachers and educators to undertake enhancement courses at approved institutions. An enhancement certificate is one requirement that a teacher must meet in order to be permanently employed by TSC, and it gives one a competitive edge during the TSC interviews.
Enhancement courses mean that teachers have to go back to the university and enrol for units offered under the subject. Graduate teachers who upgrade the content of the second teaching subject are considered for employment by TSC.
However, it is advisable to enhance a subject within your faculty. For example, if you pursued a Bachelor of Education Arts and selected Mathematics and Business as your subjects, you should only enhance a subject within arts e.g Kiswahili, so that your new combination remains within arts.
This is because most of your certificate will remain as Bachelor of education arts and becomes very difficult to be employed to Bachelor of education Science. After completing the enhancement course, you can be a Business studies and Kiswahili teacher.
Requirements for teacher enhancement courses
For enhancement courses, there are certain requirements you should meet. You must have scored a mean grade of C+ in your KCSE exams. You must also be a holder of a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree from a recognized university.
To enhance a given subject, you need to have attained at least C+ in the two teaching subjects you want to specialize in.
You must have a teaching exposure/teaching practice in the subject you have enhanced before getting employment. Then you will be required to have teaching practice certificate of the enhanced subjects during employment exercise.
You must have studied the subject up to form four level. The good news is that those wishing to enhance in subjects such as Agriculture, Business Studies, Home Science and Computer can proceed with the enhancement even if they did not study these subjects up to form four level.
If you wish to enhance in Business Studies and Computer, you must have attained a minimum of C+ in Mathematics in KCSE. For Agriculture and Home science course enhancement, one should have scored a minimum of C+ in Biology in KCSE.
The minimum number of course units to be enhanced is nine units, including teaching methods for each of the two subjects a teacher is entitled to teach. Failure to undertake the enhancement course modules as stipulated is deemed a violation of the TSC code of conduct.
The above qualifications, you need to choose a recognized university where you can pursue the enhancement course for teachers. In March 2020, the Ministry of Education released a circular with details on the approved enhancement courses, their duration, and the institutions offering them.
