Hi Jose, Sorry I couldn't get back sooner to your very interesting questions to me.
Subject: Re: Cornel on impressive qualifications unrecognised in Kenya et..?UK > < She also went on about her impressive teaching qualifications. However, > her face dropped sharply when I told her that her teaching qualifications > were not recognised in Kenya, let alone in the UK> > My dear Cornel, > Now, why on earth would impressive teaching qualifications be unrecognised > in Kenya, let alone in the UK ? > The answer to this question is quite simple really. The woman in question tried to impress me about her "impressive qualifications" when she had no clue about what I knew/did professionally. Sadly, her qualifications were not in the least bit impressive by my yardstick. This is because the highly competitive relevant Kenya teaching qualification, required success in the Cambridge School Certificate Examination for entry purposes plus interview etc. It was also of two-years' duration of full-time study. In contrast, the pertinent one as in the Zanzibar case did not meet the entry criterion above. Also, it was of a shorter duration. Thus for purposes of recognition, one was not comparing like with like. The woman in question, of course, had known this fact but it was nevertheless painful for her to be told so and to be 'found out' re her fantasy world. Indeed, many students from the former Tanganyika and Zanzibar who had the requisite qualifications for entry, travelled, mainly to Nairobi (where boarding facilities were available at Highridge) for their teaching certificate course. > And are the folks in Kenya using the same yardsticks as the folks in the > UK? > The Kenya two year course, as above, was the equivalent of the UK two-year teacher training course. Consequently, many Asian serving certificated teachers from Kenya, seeing the political writing on the wall, got their qualifications recognised by the UK Department of Education, quite early on, to allow them to teach in the UK. This worked well for only a short while however. Firstly, there was a requirement that individuals with such DES recognition would soon start work in the UK and complete a probationary period. Secondly, it ceased to be acceptable when the UK two-year certificate course became a three-year one. Thus, many who felt secure with their pieces of paper saying their qualifications from Kenya were recognised, found that while they waited in Kenya to make it to the UK, the change here, effectively made worthless the recognition obtained earlier. This difficulty was accentuated further when the three-year certificate course ceased to exist, as such, and was replaced by a three or four year (classified) honours degree level course. The only way therefore that, our trained people from Kenya could teach in the UK was to undertake further study at their own expense if they were not resident here for three years prior to the commencement of study. This included studying, for a one year diploma or(with exemption), for two years, on a shortened teacher training programme and thus obtaining a degree, or by undertaking a specific subject three-year degree course and further study for one more year for the professional teaching qualification. Understably, this challenge was enough to put most excellent experienced teachers from Kenya to turn their work orientations elsewhere. As I was in the UK well before many of the later arrivals, I knew exactly what was happening at this juncture. Many contacted me to see if there was any way out of the dilemma that they then faced. Unfortunately, there was little that could be done to alleviate the problem. > If the person truly does have impressive qualifications, Is this > "non-recognition in Kenya, let alone in the UK " not a form of economic > discrimination and prejudice? > The question has been answered above and I can't see how one could attribute the ground reality to a "form of economic discrimination and prejudice" in this instance. Those who arrived to take up teaching posts prior to the structural changes described above, faced no problems of recognition of their Kenya qualifications. > For many years - employers in the UK and US et Australia, NZ and South > Africa tried to "not recognise" Indian degrees . > I do know well about the earlier situation of the non recognition of qualifications from India. It often reflected the demand and supply situation here. Sometimes, to my knowledge, excellent people from India, and elsewhere, were disadvantaged under blanket rules prevailing at different times and interpreted by bureaucrats who did not know better. But it may be of interest to you that I personally introduced a scheme for such teachers to undertake a part-time shortened degree course at my university which then led to a one-year Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). This then allowed them to teach in the UK. I had published a couple of papers on this scheme and am aware that other institutions in the UK, in Canada and the USA emulated my 'model', where possible, especially, when there were refugee teachers also wanting opportunities for utilising their original qualifications from a range of countries from Sri Lanka to Zaire.
