First Cohort of Students at TEC making progress

At the start of 2013 ninety nine students, registered as UJ students, arrived at the newly established Teacher Education Campus at Siyabuswa. This campus, which has been established with the assistance of UJ, is destined to be the University of Mpumalanga's second campus. From 2014 UMP will register its first students here in a BEd Foundation Phase course. By the end of 2016, we will say "good luck" to the first cohort once they enter the workplace as fully qualified Foundation Phase teachers. The various stakeholders currently responsible for different aspects of this ambitious project have taken care of things like buildings, equipment, residences and facilities, as well as the academic programme.

During the first semester it was of course a case of learning to know each other, starting to form a team, and ironing out all the expected little teething problems that one can expect from starting a new campus. Similarly, the local community has now become accustomed to the new intake of students.

Any new institution goes through a period of seeking and forming a new culture - an identity that will often be tested, and even required to adapt and change as the world around it keeps changing. Education in particular, is constantly in need for transformation and reforms in an effort to keep abreast of demands made on it from the world it tries to serve.

Mareleng Primary is a teaching school that is closely associated with the Faculty of Education. Mareleng Primary is also busy with large-scale developments. New buildings are being built; the Foundation Phase teachers are regularly engaged in workshops and other contact sessions with Faculty and Students from TEC. One contribution that TEC Siaybuswa is currently making in this regard is of course the development of a teaching school that forms part of a School-University partnership. This partnership is a living learning system aimed at being an integral part of pre-service teacher training.

Our hopes are pinned on the a new generation of Foundation Phase teachers that will enter the rural areas with their newly acquired skills to infuse a new energy into Foundation Phase school education.

Below are some scenes from the beginning of the year, including the First Year Experience.