I taught in and presided over a teachers’ training college for more than 20 years and was rector of a university for 12 years. I fully endorse Dr Michael Rice’s argument last week that teachers of the foundation grades at school should not be trained at universities.
Children in the foundation phase (up to grade three) need teachers who they get to know, who they can relate to, who care for them and who can give them more than instruction.
At the former teachers’ colleges the aspirant teachers all knew that they would one day be teachers; and they lived with, talked to, ate with, became friends with and compared notes and experiences with others who, like them, would one day go on to teach young children.
At university, by contrast, students socialise with those who have their minds directed towards a host of other disciplines and this is not always a good thing.
Those of us who came from the colleges have fond memories of the lecturers and their insistence on dress, neatness, punctuality, discipline, respect, preparedness for the day’s work, interest in the student’s health and wellbeing, knowledge of their home and social conditions and everything that went into the development of a “teacher”.
And so, much of what went into the education of the teacher was transmitted to pupils later. Old-fashioned? Yes, but good.
On a few matters I might differ from Dr Rice. He proposes that the training of teachers be made up of three years in college, then a year in selected schools. Because of the extreme urgency and the shortage of teachers in our country, I suggest two years in college plus one year in schools, with a stipend in the third year. I also suggest the minimum entrance qualification for foundation-phase training should be grade 11, not grade 12. In my day entrance was grade 10: that plus two years’ training made jolly good teachers!
Dr Rice also emphasises the importance of mother-tongue instruction. Yes, of course, but then we come to another important matter, namely decentralisation. South Africa is a big country, geographically and culturally. If we could give the provinces control over their education, with provision for overall consultation as before and as provided for in our Constitution, we would go a great way towards better results, academically and otherwise.
Education is as broad as it is important. The matters I have touched on here do not exhaust the problems, but attention to them would be a good start.
Professor RE van der Ross was principal of Battswood Teacher Training College in Wynberg and rector and vice-chancellor of the University of the Western Cape