The incorporation of a teacher training college into a university faculty of education has happened without incident,
writes Bongani Mjola
More than six years of negotiations between the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Education and the Johannesburg College of Education (JCE) have finally borne fruit.
In line with the government’s policy of incorporating teacher training colleges into the tertiary system, Wits University absorbed the JCE on February 1 this year. A formal signing ceremony took place on March 20. JCE is now a college of education at Wits.
Wits University’s dean of the faculty of education, Anthony Lelliott, says the incorporation has been fairly successful.
The entire School of Education will be relocating to the JCE premises in July. This so-far smooth incorporation has been enhanced by the fact that JCE has been associated with Wits for several years.
When asked why the process took so long, Lelliott said the legal agreement had to take care of the fears and concerns of both parties. Not least among these was the fear of possible job losses, and this, said Lelliott, has been taken care of to the satisfaction of both institutions.
The incorporation took place at a time when Wits University boasts a 15% increase in overall student enrolments. And JCE, unlike other colleges of education is no longer in danger of closing down. Lelliott attributes this dramatic increase in student intake to various factors, including the improved matric results, and the fact that ”the education sector is slowly receiving good press again, and students increasingly realise that they can do more than just teach with an education qualification.”
The School of Education’s Bachelor of Primary Education (B.Prim Ed), for example, has had a remarkable 20% increase in student enrolments. The racial breakdown of their students is 49% African, 44% white, 4,7% Indian and 1,3% coloured, all levels combined. While JCE does not ask students’ racial classification enrolment in its four-year Higher Diploma in Education is 40-50% black.
Though the curriculum and general teaching are undertaken jointly by the two institutions, all qualifications will now carry the official stamp of the University of the Witwatersrand.
Lelliott’s only misgiving is that the new norms and standards proposed by the government seek to curtail the existing diplomas and replace them with the Bachelor of Education (B.Ed). ”Our fears are that we won’t have enough teachers to do a B.Ed. And there is a real question mark as to whether foundation phase teachers really need a B.Ed to teach at that level,” he said.
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg, April 2001.