Re-organisation of the School Internship Programme (SIP). The Cluster System

The Academic Board of the University has decided that the current placement for the School Internship Programme (SIP) be replaced with the Cluster System in which students will be put into clusters for teaching, mentoring and supervision purposes. With the new system, mentees will be required to teach in locations of 25km radius of a Cluster centre.

Rationale for the Implementation of the New Placement System  

The need to adopt the new system has become necessary following a myriad of problems identified to be inherent in the current regime.  These include:

1.  The unwillingness of some schools to admit our students.
2. Lack of trained mentors in most of the schools.
3. The stress on lecturers/supervisors commuting long distances to supervise only a student.
4. The cost implication and risk involved in travelling to such isolated long distance for supervision.

Due to the above stated reason, the Institute of Teacher Education and Continuing Professional Development (ITECPD) is about to roll out a comprehensive clustering system to cover the whole country to enable prospective interns select their internship schools. ITECPD, would also from time to time put out vital information to students in respect of addressing Placement, Supervision and Monitoring issues.