TEACHER EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA A Critical Study of Selected Aspects of its Historical, Curricular and Administrative Development VOLUME I by JOHN MCGREGOR NIVEN Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Education, University of Natal Pietermaritzburq 1971 (i) Table of Contents VOLUME I Page Acknowledgements (v/i) Introduction (viii) Part One : The Origins and Early Development of the Systems ..of Teacher Education in South Africa 1 Chapter 1 : Early Beginnings; the Provision and Training of Teachers in the Cape of Good Hope 1 The Provision of Teachers in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 1 Chapter 2 : Colleges and Certificates: the Expansion of Teacher Education in South Africat 1870-1910 10 1. The New Colleges 11 2. The Certification of Teachers 14 3. Teacher Education during the Colonial Interregnums 1902-1910 20 4. The Establishment of Institutions of Higher Education 24 Part Two : The Development of the Present Systems of Teacher Education: 1910-1960 27 Chapter 3 : Ex Unitate Vires - as well as division and provincialism 27 1. The Union Education Department and Higher Education 28 2. University Development in the Union of South Africa 29 3. The First Class Teacher's Certificate 32 4. Technical and Vocational Education 34 5. The Necessity for the Rationalisation of Teacher Education 39 6. Malherbe's Scheme for the Rationalisation of Educational Administration 40 Chapter 4 : The Development of Provincial Systems of Teacher Education: 1910-1945 43 1. The Cape Province 43 (a) Training and the Supply of Teachers 43 (ii) Page (b) Liaison with the Universities 46 (c) Development of Courses in Provincial Training Colleges 49 (d) Effects of Economic Depression on Teacher Education 52 (e) The War Years: 1939-1945 54 Natal 55 (a) The Teacher Training Pattern in 1910 55 (b) Liaison with the University College 56 (c) Courses for the Preparation of non- graduate teachers 63 (d) Economic Depression and the Supply of Teachers 66 (e) Developing Trends in School and Teacher Education patterns in Natal: 1930-1945 68 Orange Free State 70 (a) The Teacher Education Pattern at the time of Union 70 (b) Liaison between the University College and the Normal College 73 (c) Development of Normal College Courses 79 (d) The Supply of Teachers in the Orange Free State 84 Transvaal 88 (a) The Teacher Education Pattern at the time of Union 89 (b) Liaison between the Normal Colleges and the Universities 92 (c) The Development of Normal College Courses 102 (d) The Supply of Teachers to Developing Schools 113 (e) Developing trends in the pattern of education in the Transvaal and their implications for post-war teacher education 119 Conclusions 122 (iii) Page The Post-War Era : 1945-1960; The Implications for Teacher Education of 'Secondary Education for All' ~ ~ 124 1. The educational premises on which the new era began 124 2. The training of teachers tjo meet the requirements of the new age 128 3. The Particular Problems of Teacher Education in South Africa 130 4. Vocational Education: the- Central Problem in the development of systems of secondary education 133 The Evolution of Provincial Systems of Teacher Education: development up to the 'Sixties 135 1. Introduction 135 2. Differentiated, multi-lateral or streamed systems of education 136 (a) Transvaal 136 (b) Natal 139 3. The Development of Teacher Education in the Transvaal and Natal 142 (a) Transvaal 142 Conclusion 155 (b) Natal 155 Conclusion 164 4. Non-differentiated, pre-vocationally streamed systems of education 165 (a) Cape Province 166 (b) Orange Free States 171 5. The education of teachers in the Cape Province and Orange Free State in the post-war period 174 (a) Cape Province 174 (b) Orange Free State 178 6. General Conclusions 184 Towards the Co-ordination of Teacher Education in South Africa: 1910-1960 187 1. Introduction 187 2. The Gutsche Memorandum: 1924 188 3. The University Commission, 1928: (the van der Horst Commission) 189 4. The First Report of the National Bureau of Education, 1930 192 (a) Cape Province 196 (b) Orange Free State 197 (iv) Page The Inter-Provincial Consultative Committee, 1934 201 Education Conferences of the 'Thirties 203 (a) Teacher Training Conference, Pretoria, 1933 203 (b) New Education Fellowship Conference, 1934 205 The Problems of the 'Forties 206 (a) Teacher Shortage 207 (b) Growth of the Secondary School 208 The Development of Technical and Uocational Education and its effect upon Differentiated Education 211 (w) Tables included in the Text VOLUME I Title Recruitment of Teachers in Natal: 1927-1935 67 Enrolment at Normal Training College, Bloemfontein: 1912 72 Enrolment in Normal Schools in the Orange Free State: 1913-1915 84 Statistical Review of the Pattern of Teachers' Qualifications: 1923-1943 87 Enrolment for Primary School Courses: 1941-1945 88 Enrolment in Transvaal Normal Colleges: 1909 91 Examination Results of the 1939 Group: Pretoria College of Education 101 Failure Rates among First Year Students registered at the Pretoria College of Education: 1942 101 Recruitment of Teachers by the Transvaal Education Department: 1911-1939 114 School Enrolments: Pretoria and Witwatersrand: 1941-1944 118 Enrolment of First Year Students: 3ohannesburg College of Education: 1937-1944 119 Pretoria College of Education: Enrolment of Degree Students: 1960-1963 143 Expansion of Numbers of Student Teachers in Training in the Transvaal: 1955-1962 150 Transvaal: Enrolment of Students by Home Language: 1956-1962 " 152 Recruitment and Wastage of Teachers in Natal for the 10 year period: 1938-1947 162 Wastage and Recruitment of Teachers: O.F.S.: 1947-1957 180 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Figure included in the Text Transvaal: Enrolment in Teacher Training Courses 1955-1962 151 (vi) Acknowledgements This is the second educational research topic which I have undertaken under the supervision and promotion of Professor R.G. MacMillan, Vice-Principal of the University of Natal, and former Head of the Department and Dean of the Faculty of Education in that university. Apart from invaluable help and advice with regard to the organisation of the research, and the design and presentation of this thesis, member­ ship of his Department at a time when much of what has been recorded was being written was an inspiration and spur, the value of which it is difficult to estimate. He will understand what is meant when, in terms of the usual acknowledgement, I record my thanks and appreciation to my supervisor for ever ready help, encouragement and guidance in the prosecution of this study. My thanks are due to countless people in education authorities, universities, colleges of education and colleges of advanced technical education who have at all times proved so helpful in answering questions of both general and specific nature, who have willingly given up their time and often at a moment's notice invited a stranger in and discussed with him at length their problems and his. If this research has taught me one thing with regard to teacher education in South Africa, it is that this branch of professional education is served by a devoted band of disciples who work in many instances in varying states of isolation from one another. It would be of national advantage in the years that lie ahead if financial provision could be made available to secure greater personal contact between this relatively small but important group of teacher educators. Thanks must also be expressed to a group of people who have been indefatigable in the provision of sources and information - the librarians of universities and of education authorities and colleges of education, all of whom have been helpful not only in the matter of published and unpublished material, but also in the answering of questions regarding such material and the making of suggestions as to its whereabouts. In the matter of financial assistance, thanks are due to the Human Sciences Research Council and its President for an ad hoc grant which permitted travel to the Transvaal, Orange Free State and the Cape Province permitting direct interviews with members of Education Departments, universities and colleges of education. (vii) Finally, my sincere thanks must go to my wife and daughters who for four long years have never complained when weekends and holidays have been devoted to that exacting mistress, educational research, rather than to them. (viii) Introduction This study, in a sense, mirrors the attitudes of the society in which it is based towards a fundamental pedagogical task, that of the preparation of its teachers, Almost throughout the Western world, the concept of elementary education for all was accepted as a responsibility of the society with little thought being given to the preparation of teachers to make the concept a reality. From this emerged, with the dichotomy of full education for a privileged elite, and basic education for the mass of society, the widespread idea that elementary school teachers stood in need of professional training while secondary school­ masters required only a thorough grounding in academic studies in the university. It has only been with the full realisation about the middle decades of this century of the need for education at secondary school level for all members of society, that the necessity for a well- educated teaching force has become an accepted reality. With this has come the acceptance of teacher education as an essential pre-requisite of a national system of education rather than merely a poor and somewhat depressed Cinderella of the school system. Part One of this survey therefore seeks to examine the origins and early development of systems for the preparation of teachers in the days before the unification of the states of South Africa. Part Two carries on the historical investigation and the growing moves towards the professionalisation of teacher education up to the middle of the present century.