Dept taking teacher training seriously

WE thank letter writer ‘PPP Policy Implementer’ for the letter “Register unregistered teachers colleges” in The National on Monday.
The writer has called on the Education Department to register unregistered teacher training institutions, however, the department will not do that until these institutions meet all the requirements.
A teacher moulds a young child and the Education Department has the responsibility to ensure that teachers have the academic intelligence, personal acumen, competence in subject content and skills in the art of teaching amongst other attributes.
These colleges that have not met all the stringent standards required to be recognised and registered as private teacher training institutions have ‘put the horse before the cart’ by enrolling students and ‘training’ them without approval.
No one knows the grade point averages (GPAs) of the students they enroll, the curriculum they are using or the qualifications of the lecturers.
These are critical factors that will impact the mind, body and soul of a student when you have a half-baked teacher to teach our children.
The Education Department is not against private teachers colleges or their establishment under the public private partnership but they should meet the stringent standards.
We can only warn unsuspecting students, parents and the public not to enroll in these institutions because the department and the Teaching Service Commission will not approve and certify them to teach in public schools.
The Education Department acknowledges that many of these institutions have worked with the department to address the requirements, but unfortunately were not completed prior to the transfer as directed by the National Executive Council.
All new colleges will now apply to the Department of Higher Education Research Science and Technology, but the Education Department will still determine if a trained teacher is a fit and proper person to be approved, accepted and registered to be a teacher in the national education system.
The Education Department has taken out numerous newspaper advertisements to warn students, parents and the public about colleges that are not recognised and registered by the department because they have not met the strict conditions in place. The writer (PPP Police Implementer) saying that the department has allowed certain colleges to enroll students, implement course programmes and work in close consultation with the department through its responsible sectors to guide them to attain their registration from the national education board is not true.
The department and the Teaching Service Commisison have always maintained that they will not recognise and register graduates coming out of institutions that are not recognised and registered.

Media and Communication Unit,
Department of Education