5.1 Students

5.1.1. Enrolments, attrition, performance and throughputs

A SACOL database was kept from 1 January 1999. The database does not have race and gender statistics - but it is believed that about 95% of the students are African. The following table⁴ indicates the number of students that were registered at SACOL in 1999 and 2000.

⁴ These are statistics that were reflected on the databases in 12 June 2000.

Table 1: Numbers of students registered

Of all the students registered in 2000, about 70% of the students registered for the first time and about 30% students were continuing from 1999.

Table 2 indicates the number of student registered for different qualifications at SACOL for 1999 and 2000 and the % throughput to second year. A detailed analysis of the enrolments and throughputs for each course is given in Appendix One.

Table 2: Registrations and throughput

It is difficult to comment on the throughput because SACOL staff indicated that their perceptions were that the throughput rate for the certificate in education and higher diploma in education courses were higher than those indicated on the database.

The SACOL database does not indicate statistics by qualifications but by individual courses. In analysing the performance of students I felt it was important to consider both the attrition patterns during the year and the performance of students who actually sat for the examinations separately. An analysis of performance for each certificate and diploma course is indicated in Appendices Two, Three, Four and Five.

Examining Appendices Two, Three, Four and Five indicates that there is a difference between the pass rates of those who sat for the examinations and those who had registered for the course. In the certificate courses, the pass rate of those who wrote the examination ranged from 55-100% and the pass rate of those who registered for the course ranged from 17%-100%. In the diploma courses the pass rates of those who wrote the examination ranged from 6% to 100% and the pass rate of those who registered for the course ranged from 3% to 90%.

The attrition patterns varied across the different courses that were offered. Table 3 indicates the attrition rates in the different courses.

Table 3: Student Attrition rates by number of courses

The analysis of pass rates and attrition rates indicates that there is a large wastage in the system. For example, 34% of the diploma course have over 60% attrition rate. There are a number of students who drop out of the course and the failure rates of those who sit the examination are high. This wastage is of concern, particularly in the certificate and diploma courses, where these are compulsory qualifications for teachers to continue working in the educational system.

5.1.2 Who are the students

One-third of the SACOL students are registered to gain the required, mandatory qualification of M+3 and two-thirds of the students are upgrading their qualification level from an M+3 to an M + 4 qualification.

A more extensive description of who are the certificate and diploma students at SACOL is given from the biographical information provided by a sample of students who are in the second year of the certificate (51 respondents) and diploma (158 respondents) courses. Of those who completed the questionnaire Table 4 gives an indication of the phase of the schooling system they teach in.

Table 4: Students by school phase and programme

The SACOL students teach in the following educational regions: Durban South (24%); Port Shepstone (18%); Pietermaritzburg (14%); Ulundi (13%); Durban North (11%); Empangeni (10%); Ladysmith (6%) and Vryheid (2%). Three-quarters of these teachers classified their present school as rural and the others as urban, township, farm or village. 97% of the group are classified as teachers. About 95% of the group have standard 10 as their highest schooling qualification. The others have less than standard 10 qualification.

When I visited the contact sessions to administer the questionnaires, I was surprised to see many young teachers. I had always assumed that the teachers that were 'unqualified' (i.e. with less than an M + 3 qualification) were old teachers who had started teaching a long time ago. The teachers who completed the questionnaire started teaching sometime between 1966 and 1997 and 60% of the teachers in this sample had started teaching between 1992 and 1997. In this sample the age range of the group is from 22 to 57 years with a mean of 35 years. It seems that up to 1997 there were teachers who were employed with less than the compulsory M+3 qualification.

The group is almost all African (98%) and mostly female (88%). However a quarter of the students on the certificate course are male - it seems that there are many males going straight from the matriculation year to teaching.

In the survey instrument there was an open-ended question to elicit students' reasons for embarking on these qualifications. About half the group indicated that the main reason was to upgrade their qualification and about a quarter indicated that they wanted to expand their knowledge and to develop their teaching skills. A small number (4%) indicated that they studied for promotion purposes in order to earn more money.

Items were included in the survey instrument that were thought to reflect student attitudes to being a teacher. Three quarters of the students surveyed indicated that their friends thought they were fortunate to be training as a schoolteacher, so it seems that there is still a perception that teaching has a certain status. Half the group thought that being a teacher was the best job they could get and about one-third thought it was a difficult job to do well.