“Quality at the heart of teacher education” is the mantra that drives Michelle Mathey in her work as Director of Teacher Education in the Department of Higher Education and Training in South Africa. The purpose of her Directorate within the larger University Branch is to develop an expanded, strengthened national teacher education system across the pre-schooling, schooling and post schooling sectors. The enactment of this is found across a range of focus areas such as the evaluation of teacher education programmes against policies that frame their development; ensuring that the supply of new teachers is responsive to the demands of the country in terms of scarce skills and emerging needs, and the implementation of large scale strategic interventions to strengthen the capacity and quality of teacher education.

One such intervention is the Teaching and Learning Development Capacity Improvement Programme that is the result of a partnership between the Department of Higher Education and the European Union. The Programme comprises 52 sub- projects focussed on strengthening university capacity for the preparation of Early Childhood Development (ECD) educators, primary school teachers, teachers for inclusive and special needs education, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college lecturers, Community Education and Training (CET) College lecturers, and university teaching.