Star pupils opting to become teachers

19 February 2011 by Prega Govender

Straight-A pupils flood education faculties as bursary scheme pays off

The calibre of teachers in the country's schools looks set to drastically improve as scores of South Africa's top students sign up for the embattled profession.

Universities across the country confirmed being flooded with applications from first-year students wanting to study the four-year teaching degree.

The University of KwaZulu-Natal's education faculty, based at Edgewood College, increased its admission requirements after receiving almost 14000 applications for only 650 places.

Of the 144810 students who graduated from the country's 23 higher education institutions in 2009, almost a quarter qualified with either a teaching degree or diploma.

Deans of education faculties this week said that the huge numbers of students opting to become teachers would drastically reduce the teacher shortage - estimated at nearly 100000 in 2008.

In addition, it would address the high number of unqualified teachers working at the country's schools.

Latest figures show that there were 387837 teachers working in the country's 25906 public schools in 2009.

KwaZulu-Natal had 8317 teachers whose highest qualification was matric - while at least 20 didn't even have that .

According to the Department of Basic Education, it costs almost R149000 in tuition and accommodation fees over four years to train one teacher.

The department awarded more than 28000 bursaries worth R1.1-billion over the past four years to student teachers.

Increased applications for the teaching degree at various institutions include:

* University of Johannesburg: 2690 applications with 965 enrolled;
* University of the Witwatersrand: 2800 applications with only 420 enrolled;
* University of Pretoria: 2625 applications with 1333 enrolled;
* University of Limpopo: more than 1500 applications for 524 places;
* North West University: 1851 applications at two of its three campuses for 926 places; and
* Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University: 1452 applications and only 365 admitted.

The University of Cape Town does not offer the bachelor of education degree. Stellenbosch University recorded a drop of 64 in its teacher enrolment from 280 last year to 216 this year.

Dawn Atkins, 20, who bagged distinctions in all her courses in first-year physiotherapy at Wits last year, gave it up to study teaching at the University of Johannesburg.

"I had always wanted to become a teacher but because of the poor image of the profession, I had opted for physiotherapy," said Atkins. "There are so many mediocre teachers out there. I don't want to be a mediocre teacher; I want to be an excellent teacher."

After achieving distinctions in all her matric subjects, including dance, she could have opted for medicine or engineering.

But, she said, "you don't develop a relationship with people if you're a doctor, whilst as a teacher you are with the kids for a long time. You have their lives in your hands and you actually get to make a difference."

Fellow student Charlize Raath, 19, who was also a straight-A pupil in matric, dropped out of a science degree, specialising in veterinary science at the University of Pretoria, in her first month last year.

Raath, who registered for the science degree because of family and peer pressure, said teaching was "a fulfilling and challenging career".

"People don't realise that teaching is the most important profession in the world," she said.

Raeesa Asmail, 20, a second-year education student at the University of Johannesburg, who notched up 11 distinctions last year, said: "It's so rewarding and satisfying to teach someone something and see their face light up when it starts making sense to them."

Dr Josef de Beer, a lecturer in maths, science, technology and computer education at the University of Johannesburg, said the first-year student group at his university had to be split into two classes so that "quality teaching" could take place.

"It's a wonderful group to teach. They are knowledgeable, informed, (articulate) and they share their opinions."

He was encouraged by the large numbers being attracted to teaching.

"It shows that our faculty is viable. We have an 85% throughput rate, meaning that 85% of our first-years are successful and proceed to the second year," he said.

Professor Sarah Gravett, dean of education at the University of Johannesburg, said the government's attractive bursary scheme for teachers, known as Funza Lushaka, had contributed to the flood of applications for teaching.

The bursary encourages students to specialise in nationally prioritised areas such as the foundation phase which includes grades R to 3 pupils, languages, including African languages, as well as maths and science.

Professor Michael Samuel, dean of the education faculty at UKZN, said the minimum admission points requirement for the teaching degree at his campus was normally 24 but this year it had to be increased to 28 due to a large number of applications.

"A large number of our students are African students from rural areas. They are now going back as qualified teachers influencing others by saying teaching as a career is not a bad idea," he said.

Professor Irma Eloff, dean of education at the University of Pretoria, said they were busy constructing new buildings to cater for the huge demand for places from students.

"There's been a lot of investment in the faculty so that we can deliver more teachers into the system."

She said that five other faculties this year would assist in teaching the education students.

"We are using the partnership model where the content will be taught by staff from the faculties of humanities, natural science, theology and economic and management sciences," she said.

The director-general of Basic Education, Bobby Soobrayan, said: "A very encouraging trend is that pupils with good matric passes are thinking about teaching. For us that's the ideal because we want good students to go into teaching."

Can South Africa finally address the high number of unqualified teachers working at the country's schools? Tell us what you think; is the calibre of teachers in the country's schools set to drastically improve as scores of South Africa's top students sign up for the embattled profession?