Unisa Responded to Students Online Petition about Diploma in Grade R Teaching 

Unisa Responded to Students Online Petition about Diploma in Grade R Teaching 

The University of South Africa (UNISA) on the 6^th of April 2022 responded to an online petition from students who were concerned about the so called “proof of employment” requirement for those currently studying for Diploma in Grade R Teaching with the University.

The online petition

Students in the mentioned discipline went used an online platform, change.org to start a petition directed to the University of South Africa and the Department of Higher Education and Training concerning an email they received from the institution about proof of employment they have to send to the university for them to continue with their studies.

Details of the petition

This is what the petition says: “I am one of many aspiring teachers that applied for a Diploma in Grade R Teaching at UNISA. Our applications were accepted, our registrations were finalized and our fees were paid.”

The petition continues “We even received study materials and are currently busy with our assignments.”

Student concerns

Now, here is what the students were concerned about regarding the Grade R Teaching Diploma Course “Now we get an email from UNISA saying that if we don’t upload proof of employment in Grade R by 5 April 2022 our course will be cancelled. Yet when we applied, such proof of employment was never a requirement. That is why we were registered and were able to start our studies in the first place. It is so disappointing for a well known University to be incompetent in checking if students qualify or not. It is their duty to accept qualifying students.”

The petition continues and the students talked about how they saved monies to pay for the course. They also said that some of them (students) have rejected other offers as they wanted to this course.

What the students are appealing for?

They concluded the petition by saying “We are appealing, as students, that UNISA corrects its misunderstanding of the law and allows us to continue studying this course when we have invested our time and money.”

Signatures received by the petition

The petition was aimed to reach 7500 signatures. By the 7^th of April, the petition reached 7111 signatures. The petition was therefore handed to the university by Change.org and one of the concerned students at the Sunnyside campus according to the petition writer.

Unisa’s Response on the petition

The University of South Africa has responded to the petition via the online announcement page on their website.

Unisa responded by saying that “The University of South Africa (Unisa) is aware of the matter being raised by students in the online petition regarding the Diploma in Grade R Teaching”

They explained more about the introduction of the course and the requirements. They further said “The University of South Africa (Unisa) is aware of the matter being raised by students in the online petition regarding the Diploma in Grade R Teaching” and they pasted the published requirements on the announcement.

In conclusion the University said “The University has activated its internal processes to address this matter. The outcome of the internal process will be communicated to affected students.” Read Unisa’s response in full here.

Question time

Are you happy about Unisa’s response on the petition about Grade R Teaching Diploma? How do you feel about the way the students have protested online?

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