Wits Education Students’ Council unveils delay in physical teaching allocations.
The Wits school of education teaching experiences has postponed the physical teaching experience by two weeks to September 9, it was announced in a statement by the Wits Education Students’ Council (WESC).
The school failed to release the placement list assigning students to a particular school by the deadline of August 13. The physical teaching experience was set to start on Thursday, August 19.
Amogelang Mosoeu (25), a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) student, told Wits Vuvuzela, “I have not been placed despite several attempts at contacting them and I have not received my teaching allowance from the school.”
WESC chairperson Crista Ndou said, “There is no final list. We only have the provisional list.”
The students cannot take the provisional list as the final one, because some students are unhappy and had requested a placement review.
“A student emailed me last week, saying they are going to spend R90 a day on transportation. That’s R1 800 over four weeks. Each student receives a transport allowance of R1 500 for the four weeks,” said Ndou. “Without the practicals you cannot graduate.”
The practical teaching experience is part of every education student’s requirement and begins as early as their first year. The first year’s teaching experience lasts three weeks. From second year to final, students have six weeks of teaching experience broken into two parts. This year, two weeks is allocated to online teaching experience, currently under way, and four weeks is for the physical teaching experience.
The WESC statement said the postponement will allow some of the students in the education faculty to first get vaccinated when 18-34 vaccination registration opens, and also to arrange accommodation near their allocated schools in Gauteng. The list will be finalised two weeks before practicals start.
According to the students’ council, the postponement will not disadvantage students in any way.
Wits Vuvuzela tried several times to get comments from the school of teaching experiences, but with no luck. We called the office number of the teaching experience team, but received no response. On Tuesday, August 17 we emailed a member of the team, Pam Moodley, who has still not responded.
FEATURED IMAGE: Nonhlalo Hlatshwayo (20), second-year education student who is still not placed for the teaching experience.
RELATED ARTICLES:
- Wits Vuvuzela, Covid-19 worsens education sector’s teacher crisis, October 2020.
- Wits Vuvuzela, Covid-19 relegated primary health care to secondary status, September 2020
