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Educational Management and Policy
e‑ISSN 3143-4541 Open Access · CC BY 4.0
Vol. 1 · Issue 1 · 2026 May 21, 2026 Articles

Reimagining teacher education in Kenya: Lessons to learn from Singapore

BW
Bernard Wanyama Wasilwa Corresponding Kenyatta University wanyama.bernard@ku.ac.ke Kenya
Pages86-108 PublishedMay 21, 2026 LicenseOpen Access
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VOL 1 · ISS 1 · 2026 EMP Journal View issue

Abstract

This paper argues that a nation is only as good as its citizens and its citizens only as good as their teachers. Despite this realisation, teacher education in Kenya has been in crisis, which often proves an increasing inability to satisfy the dual demands for quality and labour markets. In 2025, the Kenya Junior School Education Assessment showed only 32.44% met or exceeded expectations in mathematics, making it the weakest subject. Additionally, foundational numeracy learning outcomes had stagnated. Arguably, poor quality teacher training was partly implicated in these trends and should contradictions between the new pedagogy of learner centered, verses infrastructure and expectations of roles of a teacher persist, Kenya will not be able to satisfy quality and labour market demands. Consequently, it will fail to reach the greater heights of development as envisioned. The study assessed the lessons that Kenya could learn from Singaporean teacher education, a country globally recognised for high-performance with high-quality teacher education, yet it had suffered from acute underdevelopment and a high unemployment rate, just like Kenya. It employed the Systematic Area Studies approach developed by George F. G. Bereday to analyse teacher education in a broad social and political context of both countries and established that in Singapore, teacher education policies on preparation, induction, professional development, evaluation, and career development, and their retention over time worked in harmony. Again, the government invested significantly in teacher quality, and it recommends that Kenya benefit from Singapore’s hindsight, insight, and foresight as a catalyst to improve its own teacher education.

Keywords

#Kenya #lessons #reimagining #Singapore #teacher education

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