Literally Yours
deceased, used his powerful ministerial pen to eliminate training colleges of all kinds (teaching, nursing, seminaries, naval). He did not stop there.
He declared the resulting created spaces to be termed Universities of Technology. So we now have 44 campuses for tertiary education.
So is there a need for concern? We need to examine the prior model. There the path from primary to tertiary education proceeded from high school via technical college, training college or university campus. The criteria were loosely based on academic prowess.
Future doctors and architects were identified at matric level. The “lesser endowed” would be directed to training colleges or schools where the “professionals” were bred, for example, teachers, nurses, preachers, etc).
Those students who weren’t going to make it there were consigned to technikons, where ostensibly the “hand skills” (mechanical, building, maintenance, etc) were taught, with accreditation coming after serving “apprenticeships”.
The prior educational model had a very discernible racial imperative. It catered for a certain group for whom unemployment was not an option. The government of the day provided a 75% employer-role via the railways, police, army, hospitals which even guaranteed employment for the mentally-handicapped. This was accompanied by pension and housing benefits. The point I am labouring to make is that this model catered for a recognised need. We have a recognised need. Our need is for trained teachers. Teachers cannot be trained properly at universities. They need to be prepared in colleges, not technical institutions that theorise about didactic needs.
We cannot abandon that truth through knee-jerk political reaction. Students need time in classes, in school environs to learn their art. And a word of caution to the evaluators of these poor wretches who go out to schools only twice a year, and are often not welcome: don’t use your visit to vilify or lacerate students. Guide them.
Nurture them. You, too, were once unsure and afraid. We need your empathy and experience to improve the dire state of our education. Teach our children to teach our children well, as advised by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.