Teacher Education as a Driver for Sustainable Development in Kenya
Nick W. Namunga, Ruth N. Otunga

Abstract
The Kenya Vision 2030 recognizes education and training within the social pillar alongside the economic and political pillars that are cornerstones expected to transform Kenya into a newly industrializing middle income country providing a high quality life to all its citizens. Teachers are an important component of education whose services are indispensable in the realization of educational goals the world over. Due to their central role in the enterprise of education, teachers at all levels require effective and sufficient education to be able to adequately carry out their roles and responsibilities. There are variations of teacher education programmes for the different levels of education from early childhood to tertiary education. Teacher education is a whole range of activities that constitute preparation for and improvement of the teaching profession. This encompasses pre-service and in-service teacher education programmes. These forms of teacher education programmes involve the study of professional disciplines, teaching subjects and general knowledge subjects. With the advent of free primary education (2003) and free secondary education (2008), the need and demand for more teachers has resulted in re-engineering and expansion of teacher education programmes for all levels of education with the realization that teachers are crucial personnel whose contribution activates the optimal functioning of the social, economic and political facets of a country. This confirms the fact that teacher education is an important driver for sustainable development since literally every knowledgeable and skilled individual in micro and macro productive activity has been shaped in some ways by the contribution of a teacher. It is thus important that teacher education programmes are crafted in a manner to energize their impact on the learners and humanity in general. This paper surveys the various teacher education programmes at all levels of education in Kenya in an effort to appraise and propose instrumental adjustments to sharpen their impact on sustainable development.

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