South Africa and Namibia need to transform their approach to education in the health sciences within HEIs for staff and students, so as to improve graduate employability and to improve healthcare in southern Africa. With high unemployment rates in both countries, constraints on national funding and visibly poor performance of first year students at HEIs, a need exists for us to collaborate to ensure transformation in our education practice that is both aligned with our strategic goals and is sustainable. The Dirisana + project aims to provide culturally-responsive quality health and science education based on evidence and directed at enabling students to address the health needs of the individual, the family, the community and the population, despite resource constraints in our environment. The project focuses on developing our staff through training programmes and studies; to align our education strategies around issues affecting student pass rates, and work readiness in the health care sector (clinical relevance); to use teaching methods that will be conducive of quality education in a resource constraint environment; to acknowledge and support student’s needs; to collaborate with teaching and learning practices; and to provide constructive advice for alignment of the curriculum with the real world of work in southern Africa.
South Africa and Namibia need to transform their approach to education in the health sciences within HEIs for staff and students, so as to improve graduate employability and to improve healthcare in southern Africa. With high unemployment rates in both countries, constraints on national funding and visibly poor performance of first year students at HEIs, a need exists for us to collaborate to ensure transformation in our education practice that is both aligned with our strategic goals and is sustainable. The Dirisana + project aims to provide culturally-responsive quality health and science education based on evidence and directed at enabling students to address the health needs of the individual, the family, the community and the population, despite resource constraints in our environment. The project focuses on developing our staff through training programmes and studies; to align our education strategies around issues affecting student pass rates, and work readiness in the health care sector (clinical relevance); to use teaching methods that will be conducive of quality education in a resource constraint environment; to acknowledge and support student’s needs; to collaborate with teaching and learning practices; and to provide constructive advice for alignment of the curriculum with the real world of work in southern Africa.