Classes for the new Grade R Diploma commenced at the Mowbray Campus with 64 students this month.
CPUT is the only university in the Western Cape that offers this qualification.
Forty-three students, who are already teaching Grade R at public schools, were awarded full bursaries by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED). Four other students are teaching in independent schools while the rest have yet to start teaching.
The students are doing the course part-time over four years and are taking six subjects in the first year. They are required to attend 18 weekends of lectures as well as four days during each of the short schools’ holidays.
Course coordinator Nici Rousseau says the WCED is anxious to have fully-qualified Grade R teachers.
“The diploma is going to be a minimum qualification for Grade R teachers,” says Rousseau.
She says the students are a very interactive group who bring experience to class.
Student Vuyokazi Matembisa, who has been teaching Grade R at Vuyani Primary School in Gugulethu since 2006, says she is looking forward to studying towards the diploma as the qualification will bring her recognition and the professional status that will command respect from her colleagues.
Marion Frantz, who is an assistant Grade R teacher at D Van der Ross Primary School, hopes to be a permanent teacher at the school after obtaining the diploma.
For more information on the course, contact Nici Rousseau at
Written by Kwanele Butana
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