PROPOSAL FOR NEW COLLEGE
Discussion Document
- The proposed BMC secondary school should be linked with a college that offers courses from NQF Level 5 and upwards. It should then become known as the “…… College” – encompassing both the FETC at NQF Level 4 and qualifications/unit standards/short courses at NQF Level 5 and above.
- The College will offer education and training during the day and evening.
- This would mean that advanced learners in the secondary school can do courses beyond FETC level simultaneously with their FETC studies. Conversely, adult learners can do FETC courses.
- This means that we would emphasise the similarities between school learning and adult education, rather than keep them separate.
- This also means that we would bring together education and training, rather than make artificial distinctions between them.
- The secondary school division will remain governed by the BMC Board, while the college division will be governed by Third Wave Human Development as an accredited provider of training at NQF Level 5. Shareholding of the two divisions can be worked out to the mutual benefit of both governing bodies.
- The secondary school and college will be run from the same building, custom built for the blurring referred to in 4 and 5 above.
- The essence of the education and training offered will be Montessori and new age – caring for people, planet and profits (the mantra of caring businesses), ensuring that all who learn and work in it are environmentally friendly and caring of people, as spiritual, physical and emotional beings.
- Tom Swart is prepared to be College Director – taking responsibility for the curriculum of both the FETC and the NQF 5 qualifications/standards/short courses, and consulting with the architects to create a flexible learning space to encompass this philosophy.
- As a suggestion for debate, the name: Sagittarius College
- As a further suggestion for debate, the vision of the College:
Building on the tried and tested
for a productive present
and a flexible future
- The College shall embrace –
- all that is good about Montessori philosophy;
- all that is good about New Age thinking (interconnectedness of everything, universal truths and principles, Feng Shui, meditation, healing modalities, etc.);
- the requirements of higher education, commerce and industry for entrants who are creative, critical, problem-solving team players;
- the principle of life-long learning.
- As such, it will develop a parallel curriculum that teaches in a focussed manner the skills of responsible problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, effective teamwork, responsible personal management, entrepreneurship, evaluation skills, effective communication, presentation skills, responsible environmental management, ecological and systems thinking, ability to make and act on informed choices, different learning strategies, responsible citizenship (including community service), peer assessment and cultural sensitivity
- All facilitators in the College will commit themselves to the curriculum in 13 above. If necessary, facilitators shall be trained to a level where they can facilitate within this philosophy. We are seeking a “learning community” in which meta thinking and learning is practised and where peers learn with and from one another.
- I believe that we will fill a market niche for those learners seeking to enskill themselves properly for the world we live in now and will inhabit in the future, who wish to tread softly on mother earth and who wish to give something of themselves to their fellow human beings.
- The College will thus offer excellence in the courses that it offers to enable learners to enjoy the best fruits of society – top university places, top jobs – to have the skills to negotiate their present and futures, and above all, to have spiritual and emotional wellbeing to embrace life with joy and freedom.
- As such, I believe it is a worthwhile, replicable model that can well develop into campuses around the country.
Tom Swart
21.2.2005