Edwin Naidu reports on trends in student enrolments for teacher training
Registration is underway for the 2001 tertiary year but what lies in store for South Africa’s tertiary system?
On the cards is massive change geared towards creating a coherent, seamless higher education sector. However, the proposed revamp put forward by the Council on Higher Education (CHE) last year came in for heavy criticism from vice-chancellors throughout the country.
After the submission of its finalised proposals to Minister of Education Kader Asmal in July, the deadline for further submissions was extended to the middle of September. Asmal is expected to act on the CHE recommendations and the submissions from tertiary institutions shortly. Cabinet will be asked to approve his final blueprint for change. However, the outlook, at least as far as teacher training is concerned, is bleak.
Statistics from several universities offering teacher training have shown a steady decline in enrolment over the past few years. Low morale in the teaching profession, uncertainty over rationalisation and redeployment and the conditions under which educators have to work has not made teaching an attractive career option. However, many universities are optimistic that the incorporation of colleges, once completed, would ensure a more coherent teacher training system in the country. The main gripe from new host institutions is that they would have to absorb the colleges and staff without receiving additional remuneration.
Much worse, according to academic staff representatives, is the fact that staff at most colleges are less qualified than those at universities and technikons but some are getting more attractive salaries. The salary issue has proved to be one of the thorny areas during the negotiations over incorporation.
Enrolments in the Department of Education at Unisa over the past four years have bucked the trend when compared to the decline elsewhere. Last year it had 5 440 students compared to 5 129 in 1999, 5 745 in the previous year and a high of 6361 in 1997.
The graduation numbers for the past three years at Unisa, however, were:
1999 1 265
1998 1 394
1997 1 564
A very heartening development is the growth in overall student numbers of about 3,5% in 2000, despite the decrease in enrolments in higher education across the country, according to vice chancellor Anthony Melck. “In fact, I am not aware of any other university that has grown by a higher percentage this year [2000]. This indicates that students have confidence in Unisa and what it has to offer and rightly so. This coming registration period will be the first in many years when students will receive all their material on registration for the first semester rather than having it posted to them later. The results are plain to see: students are voting with their feet and coming to Unisa in greater numbers than we had dared hope for a mere year or two ago.”
University of Zululand spokesperson Carl de Villiers said the incorporation of two colleges into the institution is a positive move. “The estimate is that the amalgamation will boost student figures by over 300. This is, of course, welcome given the steady decline in student enrolment over the past few years – especially so in the Faculty of Education. The trend towards science and commerce subjects has seen a drop in arts and education courses. So no doubt we do not see any negative aspects at this stage with these colleges coming under our banner,” he said.
Sam Venter of the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) said 357 students from colleges will complete their studies at UPE. The colleges are Dower College in Port Elizabeth, Masibulele in Whittlesea and Rubusane in Mdantsane.
However, Venter added that there has been a decline in enrolments in pre-service education programmes countrywide and the flow of new teachers is drying up: “This is mainly due to previously readily available bursaries now being extremely limited, and the fact that teaching is currently not an attractive prospect for employment due to redeployments and retrenchments. Although it is difficult at the moment to attract students to teacher education we expect that the trend will reverse. In the meantime, we are concentrating our efforts on in-service teacher education, where there is a huge demand for upgrading programmes for underqualified teachers, particularly in maths and science education.”
University of the Witwatersrand registrar Derek Swemmer said that in line with government policy, Wits University will incorporate Johannesburg College of Education (JCE) on February 1 and JCE will become the College of Education at Wits. Wits University’s School of Education will move premises in the course of 2001 and share the existing Parktown campus with the college.
Swemmer said Wits University has, along with other bodies training educators in South Africa, experienced a general decline in enrolment over the last three years. Total education students registered from years one to four, under- and postgraduate, and including education and arts faculties were:
1997 1 470
1998 1 290
1999 1 146
2000 1 102
Wits has been working quite vigorously to promote teacher education through increased marketing and school visits. Wits has also encouraged school leavers to become trained teachers: “We are looking forward to an increase in enrolment now that the overhaul of the education system is beginning to take shape. Our concern with those training to be maths and science teachers is that there are fewer and fewer schools offering maths at Higher Grade. This impacts on the numbers of those who qualify to learn to become teachers in their subjects.”
Mathematics and science teachers are not coming out in the sort of numbers that would ensure South Africa picks up on its abysmal performance in this area. None of the 1 265 students who graduated from the Unisa 1999 had maths or science as a major subject.
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, February, 2001.