Degrees, diplomas and certificates ceremony: 21 March 2015
Address to the graduands, guests and staff of North-West University (Kwsizabantu Mission, Cedar
College of Education, KwaZulu-Natal Province)
Prof RJ Balfour, Dean of Faculty of Education Sciences
Welcome and acknowledgements
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I am Professor Robert Balfour and on behalf of the Rector of the
Potchefstroom Campus, Professor Herman van Schalkwyk, and the Vice Chancellor of the North-West
University, Professor Dan Kgwadi, I am delighted to convey both our congratulations to the graduandi
present today, and also our appreciation to the families and loved ones honoured here as guests of the
University and our students. While this is a formal occasion in which we honour the achievement of
graduating students, please feel most welcome to celebrate the occasion and the graduates as they
cross the stage. We would be grateful if graduates and guests do not leave the hall until the last student
has had the opportunity to cross the stage as a gesture of respect and appreciation of their
achievements also. I would also like to welcome our guests present on the stage today:
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Rev Alpheis Mdlalose who led us in prayer and who will also conclude this ceremony with prayer.
Reverend Erlo Stegan, founder and director of the Kwasizabantu Mission, whom together with his
staff at Cedar College of Education (CCE), I wish to thank for the hospitality enjoyed here this
weekend;
Mr Kjell Olson, Director of Cedar College, dr Ilse Vermaak and staff of Cedar College present on
the stage
Prof Barry Richer, Acting Campus Registrar, Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University
who will present the degree hoods;
Dr Herman van Vuuren, Acting Dean for the Faculty of Education Sciences; Potchefstroom
Campus of the North West University;
Prof Aubrey Golightly, Head of the Division for Professional Development, Faculty of Education
Sciences, Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University;
Staff of the University and Registrar’s Office respectively.
Introductory remarks
Every year the Department of Education celebrates the improvements in pass rates as though these
really make a difference to performance of graduates emerging from the system. Universities do not think
they do; the private sector finds similarly problems with numeracy and literacy levels of graduates. In
2014, with a slight drop in the national pass rate, the Department has ascribed performance to the
increased demands of a new curriculum (CAPS was first introduced in 2012). Fact is, it’s too soon to tell:
a full cohort of learners has not yet come through CAPS from Grade 1. The current graduate class of
2013 caught CAPS curriculum at its tail-end. That fact belies the explanation as regards the rigour of the
2013 examinations: and as with previous years, the explanations provided fall short of plausibility.
In each year that the ANA (annual national assessment) results have been released, similar claims about
the improvement in maths and literacy rates are made. Controversially though, South African schools
continue to rank among the lowest in terms of performance on international measures of literacy and
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numeracy as contained in the TIMSS (Trends in Mathematics and Science Study) and PIRLS (Progress
on International Reading Literacy Study) results. In the 2011 TIMSS results, South Africa moved down
lower to one position higher than Honduras (the worst performing country participating in the study).
TIMSS and PIRLS conclude the performance is mathematics is underscored by high performance levels
in literacy and that both require effective schools stating that “an effective school was safe and orderly,
supported academic success, had adequate facilities and equipment, was staffed with well-prepared
teachers, had well-resourced classrooms, and provided effective instruction”. Of these ingredients, wellprepared teachers was key.
South Africa’s ANAs say little about teachers’ knowledge and skills, though by implication this issue
remains the elephant in the room. Unfortunately, the ANAs are also not regarded by the academy as
reliable given that no control test items are retained from year to year. In the course of twenty years of
education reform, South African experts have produced a considerable body of information concerning
the lack of performance in the education sector. The Department and its critics have analysed the causes
of this spectacular mediocrity. Can either the system, or learners’ performance in it, be regarded with
anything but anxiety at best, or cynicism at worst?
Were it not for the plethora of analyses (see UP’s Sarah Howie’s analysis of SA performance on the
TIMSS/ PIRLS tests) or Graeme Bloch’s (commissioned by JET- analysis of the NSC results), one might
imagine that the explanations provided by the Department were indeed plausible and that future
confidence in education was not only possible, but within reach. What prevents us in the education
sector from claiming that we do indeed possess a robust system, is precisely the refusal of correlations
between home-grown testing systems and the international measures. And, when year on year there has
been a decline in Mathematics results, and year on year universities continue through their own literacy
tests to bemoan the lack of higher-education readiness among school-leavers, the South African public
might well come not to believe either the Department, or education pundits.
At universities the debates in the last two years have concerned the extent to which teacher education
provides for a better quality of teacher characterised not by expert knowledge of the curriculum
(changeable an unbelievable every five years of so in SA), but rather by a teacher’s ability to lead in
knowledge communication, and knowledge discovery beyond the prescriptions of the curriculum. We are
reminded frequently by curriculum specialists that teacher effectiveness lies thus not only in mastery of
knowledge communication, but also in possession of more knowledge than provided for as minimum in
curriculum documents.
Two issues come to mind in relation to this notion of the ‘competent’ teacher. The first concerns debate
in universities about suitable models for teacher education: typically the Bachelors and Higher Diploma
type model is contrasted to the four year Bachelor of Education (BEd) professional degree. In 2014 a
special national symposium was convened by NWU, UJ, UP and Wits in South Africa to explore issues
concerning depth and rigour in teacher education qualifications. Some of the issues discussed are
mentioned below.
Experts in teacher education are divided as regards the efficacy of one model over the other, let alone
the pedagogy most suitable for certain types of content. Some argue that content knowledge is better
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taught and assimilated within the dedicated Bachelor’s degree (BA, BMus, BSc etc). Others suggest that
content has to be married to pedagogy since it matters as much not only what you know, but who this
comes to be communicated to children in different age-groups and phases. Many remain skeptical that a
one year postgraduate Diploma is sufficient for anything except a superficial; understanding of learning
and I know of many academics in teacher education who complain about having to supplement the
content knowledge not received by students in their Bachelors degrees. The jury is still ‘out’ as regards
the question concerning which model works best. What prevents neat arguments along these lines is
simply the degree of diversity in the higher education sector itself where universities’ undergraduate
curricula are determined by the areas of specialization offered by academics, or by virtue of
specialisation of the relevant Department - it is well known that English Studies at Rhodes has a more
Western focus than, for example, English Studies at UKZN which has a more (South) African focus. Or,
for example, not all geography departments teach Human Geography (a part of the school curriculum),
and not all language departments cover the range of genres stipulated in the NCS either. When a
student reads English, they do not read English language necessarily, and sometimes even modules in
linguistics do not cover language acquisition or socio-linguistics (both of which underpin language
pedagogy). In view of the diversity within the sector, it is hard to argue with certainty that the old ways of
teaching education (a three year degree, topped by a diploma) were adequate from a content-knowledge
perspective. In fact, with the many evident gaps in teacher’s current knowledge, the ‘old’ model has
much to answer for, both in teacher education faculties and in terms of the knowledge covered in
faculties within Bachelor’s degrees.
Here are four radical suggestions to consider in a new year for education in South Africa as regards the
role of higher education and schooling in relation to teacher education ‘models’. First, abandon the
national (NSC) examination and subscribe instead to an international examination system: Cambridge
International Examinations come to mind. This will immediately provide a credible measure of where
performance of teachers and learners is really at. Second, move beyond old debates about teacher
education models. Instead, government should survey undergraduate curricula nationally from the
perspective of teacher education and then mandate only those institutions whose undergraduate
curricula are sufficiently wide-ranging and comprehensive, to offer teacher training (whether through
faculties of education or faculties of sciences and humanities is irrelevant in my view). Third,
acknowledge that qualifications are not necessarily the best or even most effective way to deal with
current gaps in teacher knowledge (this given the tendency of universities to promote, even within
teacher continuous education, narrow and specialist knowledge after the general Bachelor’s degrees)
and instead compel through SACE an annual five year winter and summer school to be offered to all
teachers towards the Cambridge International Examinations. Fourth, offer Grade 10, 11 and 12 learners
an annual winter school (since this is the longest of South Africa’s vacations) in Science, Maths and
Languages, until we can be confident that our learners will succeed and that their success will be
sufficient for better throughput and success in high education.
Concluding remarks
In all of the aforementioned here there is one message I wish to share with you this evening as graduate
teachers who are not part of the problem in our country, but part of the solution: consider yourselves now
as minimally qualified to pursue advanced qualifications in education; that as professionals we see
ourselves as life-long learners and that North-West University can continue to be a learning partner for
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life in higher education with a special focus the development of excellent quality teachers dedicated to
improving the quality of learning in our schools.
Ladies and gentlemen we come now to that part of our celebration today where we confer degrees and
diplomas to our students here and present and so I would like to announce the following: By the power
vested in me, I hereby confer the following degrees and diplomas on the candidates whose
names appear in the programme.
Presentation of graduates
Vote of congratulations
Following such a tremendous recognition of the achievement of our graduandi today let us remember
your dedication to our studies, the long nights and weekends spent studying and preparing your work
and so let us offer one round of applause again to our students here.
Let us also remember the parents, families and loved ones, friends and support-teams for our graduandi
and without whom the achievement celebrated here today would not have been possible, and so let us
offer to them a special round of applause.
Finally, to the staff of CEDAR, Kwazizabantu Mission and the North-West University who worked with the
students, guiding and enriching their lives through the sharing of wisdom and knowledge let us offer to
them to a special round of applause. We conclude this ceremony with prayer after which we shall stand
to sing the national anthem.
Prayer
Please stand for the singing of the South African National Anthem.
By the power vested in me I hereby dissolve this congregation of the North-West University.
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