HISTORY

SANTS Private Higher Education Institution is celebrating 25 years in education. The South African National Tutor Services (SANTS) was established on 17 November 1997 as a private national education and training provider with an aspiration to develop teachers who can teach and make a difference in classrooms.  Over the past 25 years, SANTS has presented various programmes and qualifications to more than 40 000 educators in the education sector.

SANTS began its operations as a relatively small-scale organisation, offering expertise to the newly reorganised provincial education departments. Over the next few years, we presented several in-service training programmes in collaboration with these departments. By 2001, with an impressive track record and increasing demand for our services, SANTS grew and diversified as a Further Education and Training service provider, focusing on Early Childhood Development and Continuing Teacher Development programmes.

In 2012, SANTS Private Higher Education Institution was registered at the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), focusing on Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes, offering a Diploma in Grade R Teaching, a Bachelor of Education in Foundation Phase and a Bachelor of Education in Intermediate Phase. The programmes are approved and recognised by the DHET and accredited by the Council on Higher Education (CHE). The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) registered the programmes on the respective National Qualifications Framework (NQF).

As a Distance Higher Education Institution, SANTS is able to offer the programmes in ways that address the contextual realities students, in particular, but not limited to rural areas face. This includes access to affordable quality professional higher education programmes. The programmes further, enable student teachers to teach in the language of learning and teaching for school subjects in Afrikaans, English, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, and Setswana.

As a Higher Education institution, SANTS has grown significantly with close to 100 full-time employees at the head office, with an average of 600 contract workers at any given time. This includes markers, tutors, external moderators, quality assurers and marketers.

Since 2012, more than 7 000 newly-qualified teachers have graduated with a Diploma in Grade R Teaching, a Bachelor of Education in Foundation Phase Teaching and a Bachelor in Intermediate Phase Teaching degree. “Completing these qualifications equipped them with graduate attributes to become the best possible classroom teacher South Africa needs”, Professor Ina Joubert, SANTS’ Executive Academic Director.

Close to 14 000 student teachers are currently enrolled in the Diploma in Grade R Teaching, Bachelor of Education in Foundation Phase Teaching or Bachelor of Education in the Intermediate Phase Teaching nationwide.