The Faculty of Education, which is the leading producer of teachers in the Western Cape, has contributed to the development of recommendations aimed at ensuring quality education.
English lecturer Valencia Theys and senior student leaders Corne Conradie, Michelle Niemand, Johan Pienaar, Danielle Beugger, JC-Haimer Small and Dunita van der Walt, recently attended the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) Future Focus Conference at the CTICC where the recommendations were compiled.
“These opportunities are so important for future collaboration with the WCED and benefit our lecturers, students and CPUT. I would like to thank them for their dedication, enthusiasm and professionalism,” said Dr Hanlie Dippenaar, an academic in the faculty. “A special word of thanks to Ms Theys, our new English lecturer, who is always ready to go the extra mile for our students and for our institution! With such students and lecturers we will go far!”
The conference was aimed at strengthening collaboration and cohesion across different structures, agencies, partners, districts, schools, unions, parent and youth formations, as well as developing a set of recommendations to consider for future planning and implementation in ensuring quality education for every learner in the Western Cape.
Theys said the conference focused on gathering stakeholders and role-players from various educational spheres in the province to discuss educational challenges in relation to the rapidly changing technological environment.
“The dialogue which occurred over the two days was minuted and will be used to develop a set of recommendations to consider for future planning and implementation, with the aim of ensuring that each child within the WCED has access to quality education,” she added.
The students were grateful that they had the opportunity to attend the conference and felt that it contributed to their professional development. They said the conference provided them with a greater sense of awareness of various contextual challenges faced by both urban and rural schools.
They appreciated the fact that the conference allowed various schools and stakeholders to share their best practices and collaboratively develop plausible solutions to address the challenges. The students added that the conference was strategically organised to create an environment where everyone’s voice mattered, which gave them the feeling that they too played an active role in shaping positive change in education.
They also had an opportunity to meet various people of influence.
