KEETMANSHOOP – A teaching coordinator at the University of Namibia’s southern campus said physical hard files are no longer relevant for student teachers as the recently introduced e-Teaching Practicum files will be the new way of doing their internship.
Simon Albin informed regional education stakeholders about the new development during a recent stakeholder engagement seminar.
According to Albin, there is need to identify and train mentors in the directorate of education, and further that information communication needs to be included in the practicum teaching curriculum to enhance experiential learning of student teachers. “The changes may improve teacher training to assist with lesson preparation, presentation, and assessment,” said Albin.
During the engagement, student teachers suggested that they need mentorship, immediate feedback from support teachers when on internships, assistance with lesson preparation, and participation in the school readiness programme.
The students also recommended that the school-based studies (SBS) placement timing should be re-investigated so that students are placed when mentor teachers are familiar with the learners.
In addition, they requested the provision of accommodation, printing facilities, and financial support during training.
In his contribution, Kalahari circuit inspector Ryan Assegaai raised concerns pertaining to the relationships between student teachers and lecturers.
“It is disturbing that lecturers and teachers, who should serve as role models, are visiting bars with students and posting it on social media,” he remarked.
He also requested Unam to communicate timeously through the education director’s office about the time the student teachers will be at school.
“In terms of evaluating the students, forging can easily happen, and it is thus important that the School of Education must work on strategies to increase the quality of assessment and mark allocation,” said the inspector.
Resolutions adopted during the seminar included, among others, that more lecturers be deployed for the evaluation of students, proper channels of communication be put in place in terms of mentoring students, looking into combining subjects through aligning them with the ones schools are offering, and addressing an oversupply of junior primary level teachers while a shortage of Khoekhoewogab and Mathematics teachers exist.
-sklukowski@nepc.com.na