Mandera opens first teachers’ training college

Mandera’s first teachers training college has opened its doors and batch of 50 students have been enrolled under the school-based programme.

All the students are holiday based students as the college is expected admit more regular students in September.

The institution, which was constructed by Mandera county government, has a capacity of 120 fulltime students, according to the college principal, Ibrahim Hassan.

Opening of the college comes as a blessing to the border County whose education sector suffered immensely following series of deadly terror attacks in the past two years.

Hassan said the establishment of the college was fast-tracked following the mass exodus of non-local teachers due to insecurity.

“Most of the non-local teachers deserted their workstations citing security concerns. As a result, educational operations in the county were paralysed. We felt there was need to have a teachers’ training college in Mandera County,” said Mr Hassan.

Ahmed Omar Ali, one of the first students to join the Mandera TTC said  that the opening of the college in Mandera will bridge the gap left by the mass exodus of non-local teachers in the wake of the increased terror attacks.

Ali urged students to make use of the facility in their doorstep  to play their part in boosting the education standards of the County.

Early this year, Mandera Teachers Service Commission director Jimali Ahmed said the county had a shortage of 1,800 teachers.

Mr Ahmed said 850 teachers fled the county at the height of insecurity, after 28 of their colleagues on a Nairobi-bound bus that was hijacked by Al-Shabaab terrorists were killed.

“We have a serious shortage of teachers in many schools in Mandera despite having employed 671 after the exodus,” he said.

Since the exodus, only 70 vacancies were filled in secondary schools despite the TSC giving Mandera 200 slots.

The county government hired 910 Form Four leavers to teach in the county after the 2014 bus attack.

There are 42 public secondary schools and 210 public primary schools in Mandera.