<p><strong>In summary:</strong><br />
Last year’s winner of the Principal of the Year Award (POYA) in Eastern Region Ms Florence Igweta has received her award.</p>
<p>She is the principal of Chuka Girls High School located in Tharaka Nithi County.</p>
<p>The Teachers Service Commission’s third annual open day was held at Chuka University in Tharaka Nithi County.</p>
<p>The forum brought together all education stakeholders from four counties.</p>
<p>Dr Lydia Nzomo, the TSC chair said that the commission is willing to promote the integration of ICT in its system to enhance quality learning in Kenyan schools.</p>
<p>Its major focus is the installation of biometric attendance registers for both learners and teachers in schools.</p>
<p>She also urged education stakeholders especially teachers to embrace the new Competency-Based Curriculum.</p>
<p><strong>TSC ON NEW CURRICULUM</strong><br />
Dr Lydia Nzomo, who is the Teachers Service Commission chair, has reiterated the need for teachers and all education stakeholders to embrace the new Competency-Based Curriculum.</p>
<p>She was speaking yesterday during the Teachers Service Commission’s third annual open day which was held at Chuka University in Tharaka Nithi County.</p>
<p>She further said that CBC plays an indispensable role in equipping learners with practical knowledge, skills and values aimed at solving real-life challenges.</p>
<p>The forum whose theme was “Integrating Technology and Innovation for Quality Teaching” involved key education stakeholders from four counties.<br />
These are Tharaka Nithi, Kirinyaga, Embu and Meru.</p>
<p><strong>CBC TEACHER TRAINING</strong><br />
On CBC teacher training, Dr Nzomo said that the commission had trained 181 master trainers who had in turn trained 1, 165 CBC curriculum support officers- teacher trainers in preparation for a successful implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum.</p>
<p>1, 320 CBC champions have also been trained as teacher trainers by the master trainers.</p>
<p>So far, 159, 810 teachers have been equipped with adequate knowledge and skills to effectively implement CBC.</p>
<p>More teachers are scheduled to be trained during the December Holidays.</p>
<p><strong>CBC GRADE FOUR TEXTBOOKS</strong><br />
The fear surrounding inadequate learning materials especially Grade four textbooks has been waning following the announcement of seven firms that have won the tender to publish the aforementioned texts.</p>
<p>The firms are expected to print 16 million books for 14 subjects. Among the 7 firms is the Kenya Literature Bureau which will print three textbooks, Longhorn Publishers- two textbooks and Oxford University Press-two textbooks.</p>
<p><strong>POYA AWARD</strong><br />
The 2018 POYA in Eastern Region winner has received her prize. She was presented the coveted award by the TSC chairperson Dr Lydia Nzomo at Chuka University in Tharaka-Nithi County.</p>
<p>The 2019 Principal of the Year Award is Ms Jane Waceke. She is the head of Othaya Girls.</p>
<p>Ms Waceke was announced as the winner during the Kenya Secondary School Heads Conference in Mombasa this year.</p>
<p>Her win was closely attributed to her excellent administrative skills and the ability to integrate the use of innovation and technology to promote learning.</p>
<p>Ms Waceke has also given back to the society by training neighbouring schools from remote areas on how to effectively use ICT in learning.</p>
<p>She has also introduced an electronic learning popularly known as e-learning within the school.</p>
<p>She is 48 years old and hails from Karatina.</p>

