Assessment of teacher trainees in teaching practice and sustainable teaching profession in reference to Trans-Nzoia County

Abstract

Assessment of teacher trainee in Teaching Practice (TP) is the last training of teachers in Teacher Training colleges and Universities. Teaching Practice is done by assessors who had the previous training of the same from such colleges and the criterion is followed worldwide. The problem is that some universities located in Trans-Nzoia are using unqualified/untrained assessors to assess students in TP. The consequence is poor assessment which eventually leads inadequately prepared teachers. The assessors send are administrators/ coordinators who are employed as full timers because the part time lecturers are not allowed to assessor and claim for allowances from the university. The objective of the study is to investigate who the assessors are; what are their qualification and training and the challenges the teacher trainees go through during TP assessment. The research applied survey method and interview technique collecting data from teacher trainees in Teaching Practice in Trans-Nzoia County through simple random sampling in secondary schools where teacher trainees were attached from various universities. The target population was two hundred and sample size was fifty. The key results indicate that assessors harass the teacher trainees, since they are administrators working in offices not having the content and methodology or pedagogy in assessment. The universities management sends administrators to assess student trainees because no full time lecturers. It is concluded that poor assessment done lead to half-baked graduates who lead to poor standards and low quality of education in Kenya. It is recommended, the universities follow the assessment criteria of assessing student trainees done three times by one lecturer of methodology and two teachers of subjects of student trainees subject of specialization of major and minor for three sessions in TP.