BLENDED Education College of Southern Africa (BECSA), is the birth of an elephant challenging the normal terrain in teacher education.
BECSA being the first private teacher and polytechnic college in the country seeks to complement the efforts of current players such as United College of Education (UCE) and Hillside Teachers College among others. The college will occupy a unique position in the human capital development space.
The college’s strategic thrust is anchored on developing a knowledgeable, skilful and technologically versatile human capital for local and global competitiveness. “BECSA is driven by passion, innovation, transformation, integrity and inclusivity to churn out a unique teacher. We believe that to transform the world through education it begins with the teacher at the very elementary level,’’ said the college principal Mr Mathamsanqa Dube, a renowned educationalist in his own right.
Informed by white papers in education which assert that the quality of education in Africa can be transformed though a new kind of teacher, educated in contemporary ways, the college offers a Diploma in Education with specialisation in Early Childhood Development & General Primary Diploma so as to transform the teacher who is at the foundation. The college instruction is a blended approach to teaching and learning, where e-learning is combined the traditional hard copy instruction. Since BECSA is an associate college of the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), quality is assured.
The registration that BECSA has with the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development. At registration all students will receive a tablet and laptop to enable them to access the unique learner management system at the college. The whole ethos of the college is summarised by the logo.
The College Administrator Mr Blessing Kanengoni speaks with passion when he explains the logo.
“1. At the centre of BECSA strategy and operations is the white WiFi router which acts as a line of symmetry signifying our leveraging on technology and use of e-learning
2. The orange part is an open book showing traditional hard copy instruction which we are blending with e-learning hence our name BLENDED.
3. Lower blue part is our heart in education. We are passionate, evidenced by having spent 2 years injecting cash into the project while not opening doors.
4. The white line at the centre if followed from the bottom to below the orange shows a person with open arms, book the centre of the WiFi router is the head, showing how inclusive BECSA is for all who are willing to learn.
4. The blue part is a LEARNING TABLET which is a key tool in our blended learning hence every student will receive either a tablet and/ or laptop as part of the registration package.
5. The tablet when viewed with the satch on the left gives a graduation cap as we envisage 100% throughput. We believe in completing the student cycle, so the top part looks like an academic cap, which means all students who walk through our doors must graduate.
The new curriculum can be effective if a new teacher oriented differently is churned out, which BECSA intends to do.
At BECSA the adage teaching today’s child like yesterday is robbing them of their tomorrow goes. The future teacher needs not only learn pedagogy but attain a skill that they can impact to the community. They also have to be techno savvy. Technology plays a crucial role in education but will never replace great teachers, instead technology in the hands of great teachers is transformational.
BECSA has put all logistics in place and is ready to mould the teacher for the future who will transform the pupil, community and indeed the country. The BECSA way of doing things is set to revamp human capital development in Southern Africa and the rest of Africa.