John Aitchison

Professor John Aitchison was born in Durban and then studied at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg where he was active in the National Union of South African Students and in the Liberal Party. In his Honours year in 1965 he was restricted without trial under severe banning orders for five years and then again for another five years from 1971 to 1976. After teaching at the Federal Theological Seminary he joined the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg where for many years he headed the Centre for Adult Education. Later he was head of the School of Education Training and Development. He retired in 2007 and is an Emeritus Professor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He ran an Unrest Monitoring Project in the Centre for Adult Education from 1987 to 1994 and has played a significant role in national adult education policy development as well as in the development of school teacher upgrading programmes. He is known for his strong commitment to education and non-governmental organisation development in the Natal Midlands. He has been active in a number of human rights and rural development non-governmental organisations such as the Association for Rural Advancement (of which he was Director for a time).