After years of poor results on learning outcomes, the teaching profession in Kenya is getting a makeover, thanks in part to a US$88.4 million grant from GPE. The grant also supports textbooks printing and distribution, and school improvements.

The TPAD - or Teacher Performance Appraisal Development tool - is part of the GPE-funded Primary Education Development (PRIEDE) project, which focuses on strengthening school systems and governance. The project targets 4,000 public primary schools with poor performance and supports each school with a US$5,000 grant to develop and implement a school improvement plan.

Developed and managed by the Teacher Service Commission (TSC), the entity that employs Kenya’s teachers, the TPAD allows the TSC to not only monitor teachers’ attendance and syllabus coverage, but also their classroom performance, knowledge, innovation, creativity, and discipline, among other things.

Mercy Nelly (left),12, governor of her sixth-grade class, and Margaret Nyamoki (right), 12, the school’s education secretary, mark their sixth-grade teacher, Evelyne Saru Mchori, present. Mercy also notes what time the teacher arrives at class, what time she leaves and what she covers in the lesson.

At Mirinti Primary School, Mobasa County, head teacher Philemon Mwalukumbi explains his observations to teacher Evelyne Saru Mchori. Teachers must rate themselves in terms of professional knowledge and application, time management, innovation and creativity in teaching, learners’ protection, among other criteria.

Caroline Mwakisha, TSC County Director for Mombasa County says: “The TPAD has made teaching a new career, it has finally gotten the dignity it deserves. Teachers are now motivated, they are focused and they are happy. They are proud to be teachers - which is a beautiful thing... If you ask me, it is the best thing that ever happened to Kenya.”

Kenya is also developing an online system that will transform data management in the education sector and help to address disparities in access, retention and completion. It's called NEMIS - National Education Management Information System - and is currently being piloted in 600 schools with the support of GPE.

Through NEMIS every child gets a unique identifying number, so they can be tracked even if they transfer to another school. The portal also gives a unique number to every teacher and to every institution in the country from early childhood development centers through to universities. This will help to address the needs of the students per the institutions they're attending.

The PRIEDE project has supported 4,000 schools in preparing improvement plans, and has already printed and distributed more than 2.3 million copies of new mathematics textbooks for grades 1 and 2 and trained more than 70,000 teachers and head teachers in new teaching methodologies.

With the support of GPE and projects like PRIEDE, the Kenyan government is developing a new and more effective curriculum, introducing ICT for teaching and learning, and implementing new measures for school management - all with the ultimate goal of improving learning outcomes for Kenyan children.