HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE INTEGRATED STRATEGIC PLANNING FRAMEWORK
ments (NCS), National Senior Certificate (NSC) results and Annual National Assess- ments (ANA), as well as research on the qualification profiles of practising teachers, five categories of educators have been identified for targeted teacher development opportunities in the short to medium term.
OUTPUT 2: INCREASED NUMBERS OF HIGH-ACHIEVING SCHOOL LEAVERS ARE ATTRACTED INTO TEACHING
In order to meet system needs, concerted efforts will be made to attract and en- courage high-achieving school-leavers to become teachers.
Problem statement
Currently, South Africa is not producing suf- ficient new teachers to meet the demands of the schooling system. It is estimated that between 12 000 and 16 000 new teach- ers are required annually by the system. In 2008, just fewer than 6 000 new teachers were produced in South Africa. The need for new teachers is more pronounced in certain phases of schooling, in certain sub- ject areas, and in certain geographic areas. The poor public image of teachers, and the status currently ascribed to the teaching profession, coupled with the lack of funding for individual students to embark on teach- er education studies, have been identified as primary factors contributing to the small numbers of new teacher graduates that are being produced.
In order to respond to these challenges, a strong recruitment and advocacy campaign, and strengthened, responsive, aligned na- tional and provincial bursary programmes to provide adequate support to sufficient numbers of initial teacher education stu- dents, must be implemented.
Activity 2.1
Implement a strengthened teacher recruit- ment campaign
Activity 2.2
Implement enhanced bursary funding schemes for initial teacher education stu- dents
OUTPUT 3: TEACHER SUPPORT IS ENHANCED AT THE LOCAL LEVEL
Support to teachers and access to profes- sional development opportunities will be enhanced at the local level.
Problem statement
Teachers experience significant difficul- ties in accessing and receiving support, resources and continuing professional de- velopment opportunities close to where they live and work. For the large majority of teachers who work in rural areas, the difficulty is even more pronounced.
The call for the reopening of colleges of education is related in part to the difficulty teachers have gaining access to meaning- ful teacher development opportunities and support at the local level. To address these challenges, there is a need to develop teacher support structures and relation- ships at the provincial and district levels.
Activity 3.1
Establish Provincial Teacher Development Institutes (PTDIs). PTDIs are physical sites that will serve as the base from which prov- inces coordinate and deliver all national and provincial priority CPD programmes.
Activity 3.2
Establish District Teacher Development Centres (DTDCs). District Teacher De- velopment Centres (DTDCs) are physical sites located in districts and manageably accessible to teachers working in surround- ing schools. They will serve as local sup- port sites for teachers, as sites from which curriculum support staff can operate, as sites where teachers can access shared
resources, as sites of delivery for continu- ing professional development courses and as meeting points for teacher professional learning communities.
Activity 3.3
Establish Professional Learning Commu- nities (PLCs) to strengthen teacher pro- fessionalism. PLCs are communities that provide the setting and necessary support for groups of classroom teachers, school managers and subject advisors to partici- pate collectively in determining their own developmental trajectories, and to set up activities that will drive their development.
OUTPUT 4: AN EXPANDED AND ACCESSIBLE FORMAL TEACHER EDUCATION SYSTEM IS ESTABLISHED.
An expanded and accessible formal teach- er education system that both develops practising teachers and produces suf- ficient numbers of new, quality teachers with
specialised and differentiated competences that are required by the schooling system will be established.
the Problem statement
Formal teacher education provisioning is located within the higher education system. Currently, this system is not producing suf- ficient new teachers to meet the needs of the schooling system. The need is more pronounced in some phase/ subject areas than in others. The schooling system needs both more teachers and better teachers: more teachers, qualified and competent enough to teach specific subjects or learning areas, in specific phases, in specific languag- es, in all schools, including special schools, in Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres, and in rural and remote schools. Foundation Phase teacher production has been identified as an area needing urgent intervention. Moreover, access to qualifica- tion-based TED opportunities and facilities on the part of prospective and practising
teachers is currently limited. While almost all universities now train teachers, institu- tions’ capacity and reach, and the quality and relevance of their programmes, vary widely; furthermore, the continuing profes- sional development of practising teachers appears to be afforded inordinately greater institutional capacity and resources than is devoted to the training of new teachers. In part, the call to reopen colleges of educa- tion is linked to the fact that universities as they have been operating since 2000 have not been able to meet the demand for new teachers across all subjects and phases.
It is essential that the capacity of institu- tions currently providing TED is optimised, extended and expanded, and that new TED delivery sites are identified and resourced. TED facilities in general need to become more accessible. It is also important that existing economies of scale in TED are bet- ter exploited, and that existing efficiencies are optimised by focusing, rather than un- necessarily dispersing, available resources. Teacher quality has also been identified as an area that needs attention. The Policy on the Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications defines standards at a generic level for all teacher education qualifications, in line with the requirements of
the Higher Education Framework (HEQF).
More specific standards need to be devel- oped that relate to the areas of expertise in which teachers need to specialise. In order to address these challenges, all existing ac- credited public (and private) providers of formal TED programmes will be drawn into a nationwide network of Teacher Educa- tion Institutions (TEIs). The intention is to cater for the multiple and varying needs for more and better teachers, and to give particular consideration to ECD practitio-
Qualifications
124 CHAPTER 7 | THE TEACHER AND THE TEACHING CAREER
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CHAPTER 7 | THE TEACHER AND THE TEACHING CAREER
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