SOUTH AFRICA TEACHER TRAINING POLICIES CREATED BY IDDI JUMA

Introduction
The African National Congress (ANC) national conference in Polokwane in
December 2007 raised the issue of teacher training policies. Specifi cally, it
questioned whether or not colleges of education – some closed in the late
1980s and others incorporated into universities in the early 2000s – should
be re-opened. This has led to a vigorous debate on the impact of teacher

Policies implemented from 1996 onwards intended to transform the
teacher education system so that it could meet the democratic and equity
ideals of the new South Africa.

Policy recommendations by the democratic
movement and the guidelines of the new Constitution meant that teacher
education became part of the tertiary sector – that is, education that takes
place after secondary school. A single national teacher education system
was achieved through two interrelated, and extremely complex, processes.
In the 1990s many colleges of education were closed; from 2001, the
remainder were incorporated into the faculties, schools and departments
of education at universities. Teacher education was also affected by the
massive restructuring of the university sector through a complicated process
of mergers and incorporations that took place from 2002 to 2005. The result
was not only a transformed tertiary sector but also a signifi cant reduction
in the number of institutions offering teacher education programmes.
The intent of this booklet is to outline what has been done to improve the
quality of teacher education since the end of apartheid, and the challenges
that remain in building a teaching corps that delivers quality education at
10 Issues in Education Policy Number 6
all levels. It begins by looking briefl y at how the tertiary sector as a whole was
restructured; this serves as a background to the material presented in the
rest of the booklet. The booklet goes on to summarise how teacher education
was organised in apartheid South Africa. It then examines the policies and
legislation that were put in place after the 1994 election to restructure the
teacher education system. It analyses how these new policies have affected
access to programmes for the initial professional education of teachers
(IPET) and for continuing professional teacher development (CPTD).1
The analysis considers how and why enrolment trends have changed
and whether the state’s current responses are sustainable. It discusses the
possibility of introducing new teacher education institutions, and of offering
new types of training that could expand access. The booklet concludes with
a discussion on current proposals relating to access to teacher education.
At the end of the booklet, there is a list of Further Reading for those who
want to expand their knowledge in the area of teacher education policy.
This booklet does not discuss private institutions because it is
overwhelmingly the public higher education institutions (HEIs) that are
the providers of teacher education in South Africa at this time.
Restructuring Higher Education
In the 2007 Solomon Mahlangu Education Lecture, sponsored by the
Centre for Education Policy Development (CEPD), Professor Saleem
Badat pointed out that since 1994 virtually no part of higher education
has been left untouched. The changes that took place aimed to reshape
the social, political and economic inequalities of the race, gender and
class system inherited by the new government. Although this booklet is
about restructuring teacher education, the process of restructuring higher
education as a whole also has to be understood because the two processes
are so closely related. In this section, I will give a very short summary of
1 IPET programmes train new teachers. CPTD programmes develop the skills of teachers who are already
working in the profession.
Restructuring Teacher Education 11
higher education restructuring, in order to give the reader the context for
the restructuring of teacher education.
In 1994, the South African higher education system consisted of 36 public
higher education institutions – 21 universities and 15 technikons. The
universities were generally seen to be responsible for “pure” academic
studies and professional training of, for example, doctors and engineers;
the tecknikons offered technical training at tertiary level but with a more
practical orientation than the universities. Both were structured along racial
and ethnic lines. Each was the responsibility of a government department or
one of the apartheid Bantustans, depending on the racial or ethnic group it
catered for. In addition to the universities and technikons, there were many
colleges for training teachers, nurses, the police and the military; these
colleges were also administered along racial and ethnic lines by provincial
administrations and by various “separate development” political structures.
A very small private higher education sector was also present.
White Paper 3 on higher education – A Programme for the Transformation
of Higher Education – was published by the Department of Education
in 1997. It proposed the general principles and values for change in the
tertiary sector. A government review of macro-economic policy led to
the introduction of the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR)
strategy and its tight fi scal framework. This had a direct bearing on the
tertiary sector. There was also uncertainty about funding arrangements
for subsidising students, and this made it diffi cult for tertiary institutions
to plan their budgets. By 2000, the viability of a number of universities
and technikons was threatened; few were fi nancially healthy, due to
weak management, ineffi cient administration and declining enrolments
experienced from 1998 to 2000.
To deal with this, the Department of Education (DoE), in partnership with
the Council on Higher Education (CHE), continued the restructuring of the
sector. The aim was to enhance institutional capacity to produce quality
education.
12 Issues in Education Policy Number 6
In 2000, the CHE presented its report − The Shape and Size of the Higher
Education System − to the Department of Education. It confi rmed the
serious plight of many institutions, particularly historically disadvantaged
institutions (HDIs). This led to the passing of the National Plan for Higher
Education in South Africa in 2001, which provided for the restructuring
of the higher education sector. Basically, this reduced the number of
institutions in an attempt to improve the effi ciency of the system. A new
higher education funding framework followed in 2003, which placed
teacher education in the lowest subsidy category. This resulted in teacher
education being regarded as somehow less important than other university
faculties.
These changes radically transformed the higher education landscape. As
of 1 January 2005, the public higher education sector consists of 23 higher
education institutions. There are now three types of institutions:
• eleven “traditional” research-focused universities;
• six universities of technology (formerly technikons); and
• six new “comprehensive” universities that combine academic and
vocationally oriented education, and that are aimed at enhancing
student access and expanding research opportunities and market
responsiveness.
The national plan for Higher Education of 2001 provided for the
establishment of national institutes in the two provinces that had lacked
provision for higher education, the Northern Cape and Mpumulanga. These
institutes were established in 2003 and 2006 respectively. They serve as the
administrative and governance hubs for higher education programmes
provided in their provinces by higher education institutions which are
based in one of the other seven provinces.
Of course, this process has had an enormous impact, not only on tertiary
education as a whole, but also specifi cally on the education of teachers.
The impact on teacher education will be discussed below.

Even before apartheid ended, various stakeholder groups were already
thinking about new education policies. These initiatives were the fi rst
steps in building an inspirational vision of post-apartheid South Africa’s
education and training system.
The National Education Policy Initiative (NEPI), a project carried out by
the National Education Co-ordinating Committee (NECC) between 1990
and 1992, began a process of policy debate. NEPI critically examined
policy options in all areas of education, based on the ideals of the broad
democratic movement. There was consultation with all major stakeholders,
including teacher organisations, organisations in the democrati

Working groups of
education and training stakeholders developed discussion papers covering
most areas of education. The working group on the teacher education
system recommended that the colleges of education should play a central
role in training teachers. Policy should take both urban and rural needs
into account, and capacity-building measures should focus on rural black
colleges. A suggestion to close poorly functioning colleges was rejected on
the grounds that this would waste existing resources.