Languages: 
WSU's Faculty of Education and the Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE) have embarked on a pivotal collaboration to align the department's educational priorities with the expertise of WSU graduates.
The two entities met recently to outline several projects they would undertake to bridge the gap between the region’s evolving educational needs and the university’s output of highly skilled professionals.
ECDoE’s Acting Director for Curriculum Management, Chulekazi Xundu-Bula, highlighted key areas for potential collaboration, including Early Childhood Development, mathematics and physical sciences education, community outreach initiatives, as well as teacher development and support.
“Mathematics is one of the most challenging subjects in the province, and yet we are a highly enrolled province in the subject. So, we are going to be piloting programmes with WSU, where we are assisted by their lecturers in terms of making sure that our learners do well in mathematics,” said Xundu-Bula.
As the ECDoE introduces modern subjects like coding and robotics into Eastern Cape schools, they face the challenge of a shortage of adequately skilled teachers to meet the demand.
Xundu-Bula emphasised that WSU, as one of the province’s leading educator training institutions, was expected to supply a substantial number of competent teachers in these subject areas.
Echoing Xundu-Bula’s sentiments, the Department’s Director General, Ray Tywakadi added that they would also looking at WSU’s research outputs to identify areas of improvement within the department.
“We are looking at enrichment programmes that we can undertake between the department and the university. We are also looking at the area of research to identify where there are gaps in our information and our research. Lastly, we are looking at finding funds to make sure that as we go along this path, we have sufficient funding that will help us through this process,” said Tywakadi.
Executive Dean of WSU's Faculty of Education, Professor Bongani Bantwini emphasised the need for universities to stay connected to the global landscape while addressing local priorities.
“"I'm pleased with the areas we've identified, and the fact that both the faculty and the department of education will have dedicated task teams driving these projects. We are going to sit and decide on who will lead, for example the coding project, and so on. And I think that's actually how we are going to win at this time,” concluded Bantwini.
By Yanga Ziwele
