The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has participated strongly in the development of the new Teacher Education and Development Planning Framework and welcomes its launch, and commits itself to the implementation that must follow.
The role of the DHET with respect to school teachers in the new national education landscape is to support and steer the national higher education system towards the production of sufficient numbers of quality new teachers of the kinds that are required by the schooling system, and to ensure effective planning with regards to the provision of quality continuing professional development programmes related to career pathways for teachers.
Components of the Planning Framework outline how the DHET will approach this task:
- The number of new teacher graduates must increase to meet the needs of the schooling system. A target of 12 000 new teachers graduating annually by 2014 has been set. The capacity of the system will be increased to enable this target to be met.
- The capacity of the system will be increased in the following ways:
- Full utilisation of existing capacity will be encouraged. This means that institutions will be encouraged to maximise their intake of initial teacher education students in line with the capacity that exists at the institution.
- Capacity of existing institutions will be increased. This means that institutions which are able to take in more students, but do not have the resources to do so e.g. staff, physical spaces etc will be supported to do so. In some cases, this could involve expansion of teacher education programmes to campuses at the institution which are not currently utilised fully for initial teacher education.
- Where the above two measures proves insufficient, new institutions will be developed where needed/appropriate.
- The production of African language Foundation Phase teachers has been identified as a critical area that needs priority attention. A three year programme in partnership with the EU has been implemented to increase the number of Foundation Phase teacher graduates by 10% year on year, and to increase the number of institutions offering Foundation Phase initial teacher education programmes from the current baseline of 13 to 18 by 2014.
- Attention will be paid to improving the quality of teacher education and development programmes through.
- Strengthening the work integrated learning component of teacher education programmes through the establishment of teaching schools and professional practice schools that are closely aligned to the universities that produce new teachers.
- Developing and implementing a new policy of Minimum Standards for Teacher Education Qualifications, to regulate the nature of teacher qualification programmes offered by universities.
The DHET acknowledges that the success of this work will be reliant on continued collaboration with all stakeholders especially the Department of Basic Education and looks forward to meaningful engagement at national level in the proposed National Teacher Education and Development Committee (NTEDC) and at provincial level in the proposed Provincial Teacher Education Committees (PTECs).
For further enquiries:
Ms Kirti Menon
Tel: 012 312 5284
Cell: 082 941 1133
E- mail: menon.k@dhet.gov.za
