A delegation from South Africa has visited the University of Warwick to exchange ideas and practices in delivering education.

Secondary school senior managers, education board members, University academics and a Member of the South African parliament all travelled from Limpopo Province to campus for a week last month.

While the group were here, they met with University of Warwick academics from the Centre for Education Studies and visited local schools in the Coventry and Warwickshire area. They were given an overview of initial teacher training and took part in a leadership course.

The visit was funded as part of the British High Commission’s Prosperity Fund project, contracted to Warwick by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). A key outcome for the project is to develop a 3-5 year partnership with the University of Venda and Limpopo local government staff to improve the quality of education in Limpopo Province, which could be replicated and scaled to other regions and countries.

Livuhani Netshivhuyu said: “To me all the sessions were very relevant, informative, well-planned and were unpacked in an understandable way. Looking forward to implementing new knowledge gained, come 2015”.

Moses Nethathe said: “ Visiting Warwick and the schools in the UK was a wonderful experience”.

Florah Ravuhanzwo said: “ I am one of the lucky principals to have had the opportunity to attend the workshop on Leadership and Management at The University of Warwick. As a new principal, the course came to me at the right time as I need more knowledge on how to manage my school in general. The topics discussed opened my mind in such a way that I now know what to do come next year”.

Centre for Education Studies