QUALITY CONTROL IN HIGHER EDUCATION LECTURE FACILITATION: THE CASE OF UNDERPREPARED STUDENTS OF STATISTICS

Lecture facilitation has over the years been taken for granted that subject knowledge of lecturers was adequate for students. Pass rates were considered adequate from lecturers' viewpoint, regardless of the rates at which they occurred. High pass rates were regarded as good facilitation by the lecturers while the poor rate was considered to be the students' faults. This was because only the lecturers were required to give reports. These days, students are able to report, either in a formal platform or through their own initiative. Modern trends, however, show that lecturers who have lecture facilitation knowledge, such as those who were trained and qualified to become teachers, tend to perform better in lecture facilitation. Methods of teaching also have quality control aspects, as there are ways to ensure that lecture facilitation takes place as required and that through the lecturers the students indeed acquire knowledge as the lecturer anticipates. In the case of South Africa, deficiencies in lecture facilitation have led to lecturers being dismissed from their posts due to ineffectiveness and poor student performances. Such lecturers would usually have facilitated lectures without gauging if during the process, students followed as aimed. This study proposes to incorporate formal quality measures in lecture facilitation. The questions to be answered are 'How do we know whether quality education has, or has not been achieved during lecturing?' and 'How can we establish measures and controls in order to achieve good quality programmes and services to students?'