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21 April 2021
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Story Eugene Seegers
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Photo Supplied
Adelia Chauque graduated with distinction during the April Virtual Graduations hosted by the UFS.
On 20 April 2021, 693
South Campus students graduated during a
virtual ceremony, with 213 of them achieving distinctions. One of these is
Adelia Chauque, the newly elected South Campus SRC member for Policy and Transformation. During her journey as a student, Adelia says that she had numerous obstacles to overcome. For instance, she mentions that her “biggest challenge was completing my tasks with an unstable data connection during the pandemic”. Despite this impediment, Adelia managed to excel in her studies and obtained her qualification with distinction.
Adelia says her family was her biggest support system. “Due to the network problems that I faced my family had to drive me around until we found a stable connection that enabled me to write my tests.” Other support came from the university itself. “I received a lot of support from the academic adviser, Mr Chwaro Shuping,” she says. “Although he couldn't arrange for me to return to campus, he called regularly to ensure that I was still academically active.”
After overcoming these hurdles, Adelia is continuing her academic journey. “I am enthusiastic and eager to learn or to better myself. Due to that, I am furthering my studies by enrolling for a second degree programme in
Administration majoring in Industrial Psychology. I am very ambitious, in the sense that I strive for perfection and consistency with an organised and maintainable future, therefore being part of the SRC enables me to assist students and myself with a secured and comfortable learning environment to achieve our goals at the institution.”
Adelia balances her responsibilities in the SRC portfolio of Policy and Transformation on the South Campus by having a schedule planned that ensures she does not fall behind. She concludes, “During the morning, I attend my prescribed lectures to ensure that I will continue to slay academically. Then I am visible in the SRC office from 12:00 to 16:30. After hours, I contribute my time to study, but I remain available to students who prefer texting.” The university is keen to see the heights to which Adelia will attain in the coming years.
“I am enthusiastic and eager
to learn or to better myself.”
Adelia Chauque, South Campus SRC:
Policy and Transformation.
Rhodes professor calls for accountability in teacher education
2013-11-14
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Prof Jean Baxen of Rhodes University and Prof Dennis Francis, Dean of the Faculty of Education of the UFS.
Photo: Stephen Collett
15 November 2013 |
Lecture (pdf)
“Our education system needs quality teacher education.”
This was the message from Prof Jean Baxen, Deputy Dean of Research at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. She delivered the Education Public Lecture on ‘The lives of children, citizenship and teacher education: challenges and opportunities’ at the University of the Free State’s Bloemfontein Campus.
Growing up in White River, the rural areas of Eastern Transvaal (as it was previously known), Prof Baxen took the audience on a journey of the imagination. She shared stories of how she and fellow learners walked miles to get to school and how her son found himself in a situation of being unsure about his own racial identity, questioning what it meant to be ‘coloured’. She also related stories of how teachers are not sufficiently prepared to mediate information on HIV/Aids.
These stories revealed how little teachers cared, and also how difficult and challenging it is for learners to cope in such teaching and learning environments – thus calling for quality teacher education.
She stressed the fact that quality teacher education is needed in South Africa to assist in curbing the challenges children and fellow citizens come across in our broader society. “It is important that, as teacher educators, we should groom teachers to find and understand their identity, sexuality, and also the world they live in. There is an urgent need for us to hold ourselves and others accountable and to not distance ourselves and make it someone else’s responsibility – it is our joint responsibility as citizens,” she said.
We need a pedagogy that would navigate and start formulating a language that we could use to face these challenges, she proposed.