Mpumalanga University Teaching

The Teacher Education Campus at Siyabuswa is aimed at establishing a new university in Mpumalanga – the first new university in South Africa since 1994 when the first democratic government was formed. This initiative is a joint undertaking that involves the University of Johannesburg (Academic Programme), the National Department of Higher Education and Training, the Mpumalanga Department of Education and the National Institute of Higher Education (Mpumalanga).

At the start of 2013 the first cohort of students arrived at the Teacher Education Campus, Siyabuswa to start with their four year B Ed Foundation Phase teacher training programme offered by the Department of Childhood Development. With an emphasis on the training of a new generation of Foundation Phase teachers, the faculty’s academic program at Siyabuswa is being offered to students from a rural background. The aim is that these students upon graduation will return to their communities to help address the need for well-trained Foundation Phase teachers in the rural areas of the country. During his address at the formal opening of the Siyabuswa campus, Minister Blade Nzimande of the Department of Higher Education and Training expressed his sincere wish that this initiative will help alleviate the need for trained teachers that will return to schools in the rural areas once they graduate. In this way, a contribution is also made to the development of rural areas, as stated in the National Development Framework.