Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
25 October 2018 Photo Tello Theletsane
UFS Postgraduate Education students attend orientation programme
Postgraduate students from the Faculty of Education at the World of Work teacher orientation held at the university.

Postgraduate students in the Faculty of Education at the University of the Free State (UFS) were subjected to an enlightening theoretical orientation of what to expect in the actual world of teaching.

Delivering an address to the students, Dean of the Faculty of Education, Prof Loyiso Jita, said the annual World of Work session was meant to ensure that “our students are not surprised when they enter the working environment, but are prepared and are able to make their own calculations.”

Qualities of a best teacher

In his speech that sought to evoke the conscience of students about the qualities of the kind of teacher they should be, Prof Jita encouraged them to learn from the best model teachers they had seen during their schooling days and to do away with the habits of the bad teachers they had met.

Prof Jita outlined five features that characterise a good teacher: a love for children; a love for books; a love for helping others; developing expertise in your subject area; and remembering that you have a role to play in developing the country’s leaders of tomorrow.

Teachers have to undergo development programmes

The Provincial Director of the South African Council of Educators (SACE), Marupi Marumo, took the students through a series of ethics, morals, and development programmes for teachers which include internet, digital content, and broadcast ways of teaching. “Teachers have to be members of SACE and government has made it mandatory for teachers to undergo educational programmes as constantly as possible,” he said. 

Marumo warned that the teaching profession is nowadays infested with fraudsters who fake their educational qualifications, from a matric certificate up to a tertiary qualification.

“It is on this this premise that all incoming teachers will have to register with us and have their qualifications verified,” he said.

The session was attended by officials from the provincial Department of Education, Labour, Xhariep District, local school principals, and teachers’ unions.

News Archive

Inspiration from an Olympic Champion for Spring graduandi
2012-09-20

Photo: Hannes Pieterse
20 September 2012

The guest list for the Spring Graduation ceremony of the University of the Free State included an Olympic gold medallist, a former Miss South Africa finalist and the Prime Minister of a neigbouring country.

The new graduates could draw inspiration from Olympic swimming champion Chad le Clos, who was the guest speaker at the event. Also attending was the Prime Minister of Lesotho, the Honourable Thomas Thabane, who came to watch his grandson graduating from Kovsies. Sharing a stage with Le Clos was Rolene Strauss, a medical student, who was among the top five contestants at last year’s Miss South Africa competition.

Le Clos, who became a national hero in July when he won a gold medal in the 200 m butterfly at the Olympic Games by beating American swimming legend Michael Phelps, told new graduates to strive for the impossible. Giving them insight into his remarkable achievement, Le Clos told them nobody had expected him to beat Michael Phelps. “Even I thought it was impossible to achieve. Always have a goal and work towards it,” he told them and said his ambition was to build up swimming in South Africa. Le Clos said he hoped that by 2016 there would be more swimmers making South Africa proud.

Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the university, delivered an Olympic-inspired message. Quoting the motto of the modern Olympic Games, ‘faster, higher and stronger’, Prof. Jansen told the new graduates that they had to be better than those who came before them. “I expect my students in a troubled country to learn how to be different, faster, higher and stronger. Faster means efficiency; it means to be responsive to those in need."

Drawing lessons for the country from Le Clos' victory, Dr Khotso Mokhele, Chancellor of the University, told the graduates to choose optimism. Referring to the Marikana mine tragedy, Dr Mokhele said the country was far from taking the last stroke. “Even if it looks as if the curtain is down; remember that final stroke of Chad le Clos and how the great Michael Phelps was defeated.”
 

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept