Junior lecturer Kgosietsile Monnagaaratwe’s journey began when he was selected as a student assistant at the North West University (NWU) 12 years ago. The junior lecturer has now been honoured with an emerging excellence teacher’s award by institution.
NWU celebrated the torchbearers during its annual Teaching Excellence Awards (TEA) that took place virtually on Friday.
The best lecturers of 2020 were acknowledged for their work in taking teaching and learning to higher levels.
Monnagaaratwe, 40, a lecturer in the faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, dedicated the award to his mother Kedibone, who he says raised him and seven siblings and ensured that they got a good education.
“I grew up in one of the farms somewhere close to a place called Bloemhof before relocating to Ipeleng location. My upbringing was extremely challenging and difficult as my parents were domestic workers for the farmer [at the place] where we were staying. However, education was always top of their list, which is why I ended up enrolling at the NWU,” he said.
He said in 2009, while he was doing the final year of a degree in transport economics and logistics, he was chosen as a student assistant and his duties were to interact and assist students who were struggling academically.
“Ever since then, I never looked back and even though I left the university to work in logistics, I came back in 2014 to do what I love, which is why I can never take this award for granted. It shows that it does not matter where you come from, with determination and hard work you can be what you want,” Monnagaaratwe said.
Prof Linda du Plessis, deputy vice-chancellor of the NWU responsible for planning and the Vanderbijlpark campus operations, congratulated all TEA winners and said that their teaching contributions underpin the NWU’s reputation for quality, employability and responsiveness to market and national higher education needs.
“The NWU’s TEAs aim to acknowledge lecturers for their role, commitment, dedication and contributions to the quality and excellent teaching and learning within multidisciplinary fields and with respect to student success.
“The awards were presented in three categories: Emerging Teaching Excellence Award, Teaching Excellence Award and Distinguished Teaching Excellence Award,” she said.
She said Prof Roelof Burger from the school of geo and spatial sciences in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and Dr Teresa Hattingh, a senior lecturer and programme manager in the school of industrial engineering, were awarded the Distinguished Teaching Excellence Award, which is the highest institutional award bestowed on a lecturer.
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