Enough good bread for everyone

Teacher education is in crisis, both in terms of quality and in terms of quantity. The current measures to address the crisis are not adequate, because they are solutions that are not attuned to our context. It is like being faced with a bread shortage – and being told that expensive cake will solve the problem.

What we need are sound and simple ways to provide enough good bread for everyone. The two current routes for the training of new entrants to the teaching profession – the 480-credit B Ed, or the degree plus a postgraduate certificate in education, are meant to follow international practice, raise the quality of teachers and remove the double standard in teacher-education provision inherited from the days of apartheid education when whites got four years at universities or colleges, while most blacks got only three years at colleges.

But these routes are too long, expensive, and daunting for many of the young people who formerly would have been attracted to the teaching profession. Also, student teachers tend to leave the areas where they live (and where they could fill much-needed teaching positions) to attend one of the higher education institutions in a main centre – and usually do not return to their original communities. There is a need for an approach to teacher training that can:

• bring large numbers of new teachers quickly into the classroom while not compromising on quality;

• train thoroughly for Curriculum 2005 and classroom realities, while also providing broader perspectives;

• allow trainees to contribute in the (remote) communities in which they live, while not limiting their opportunities for personal development; and

• facilitate collaboration between provincial departments of education, higher education institutions and schools in manageable and meaningful ways.

Following extensive research, the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the South African Institute for Distance Education are developing a programme that tries to do just this. Preparations for this programme are being made in 2004/05 for delivery in 2006 and is designed to provide classroom-based training of foundation-phase teachers.

The point is that trainee teachers should be placed in schools from the start so that they teach what they learn and while they learn. However, it is also important to give teachers detailed guidance through extensive classroom-ready sets of materials, contact sessions, and support in the classroom. They should not simply be trained as technicians using other people’s lessons and ideas. They should develop an increasing ability to reflect on their practice.

In addition, it is important to create an awareness that this initial training is just that – initial – and that the requirement for successful teaching is ongoing professional development.

The programme is a two-year part-time programme leading to a qualification worth REQV 11 in salary terms. Thereafter, trainee teachers will practise for a further one or two years (a kind of internship), after which they could be awarded REQV 12 status. This will enable them to enter the last part of the upgrading programme, the National Professional Diploma in Education, and become fully qualified teachers with REQV 13.

A much-discussed feature of this programme is the selection process. In the recent past, there has been very little, if any, selection of student teachers. This has often meant that unsuitable people have entered the profession. It is important to raise the status of the profession by insisting that not everyone is suited to teaching – it requires certain talents and commitments. The selection process for the programme involves assessment to see whether candidates have: