1. Academic Wits Research Publications (Faculties submissions)

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End date: 2009Subject: search.filters.subject.South Africa

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    Education service delivery: the disastrous case of outcomes-based qualifications frameworks
    (SAGE Publications, 2007) Allais, Stephanie Matseleng
    International trends towards outcomes-based qualifications frameworks as the drivers of educational reform fi t in well with trends in service delivery and public sector reform. Education reform in South Africa provides a particularly interesting case study of this phenomenon, because of the very comprehensive outcomes-based national qualifications framework that was implemented shortly after the transition to democracy. Problems with the framework as a basis for education reform became rapidly apparent, and the system is now deadlocked in a series of unresolved policy reviews. A key to understanding this collapse is the role of knowledge in relation to education. The outcomes based qualification framework approach turns out to have very little to do with education, and in fact to have the potential to increase educational inequalities, particularly in poor countries.
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    Why the South African NQF failed: lessons for countries wanting to introduce national qualifications frameworks
    (Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2007) Allais, Stephanie Matseleng
    This article examines the South African National Qualifications Framework as a case study of a particular approach to the design of qualifications frameworks, which revolves around the specification of learning outcomes separate from educational institutions or programmes. It shows how an outcomes-led qualifications framework was seen as a desirable policy intervention by educationalists and reformers across the political spectrum, as outcomes were thought to be a mechanism for improving the quality and quantity of education as well as its relevance to the economy and society, for increasing access to education, and for democratising education. All these claims are based on the idea that outcomes statements are transparent. The article demonstrates that outcomes-based qualifications cannot provide the clear, unambiguous, and explicit statements of competence that would be required for everyone to know what it is that the bearer of a qualification can do. This lack of transparency leads to a further specification of outcomes. This in turn leads to a downward spiral of specification, which never reaches transparency, and an upward spiral of regulations, which is also caught in the logical problem of the downward spiral of specification. This model is not just unnecessary, but could in fact undermine the provision of education. The article suggests that while this type of model appears attractive particularly to poor countries, it is in these countries that it is likely to do the most damage.
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    Substantive equality and transformation in South Africa
    (Juta and Co, 2007) Albertyn, Catherine
    This article considers whether ‘substantive equality’, as a transformative idea and legal mechanism in the South African Constitution, can generate legal solutions and court decisions that may result in transformative change. It does so by establishing a framework for analysing the ‘inclusionary’ or ‘transformatory’ effects of equality cases in relation to gender and sexual orientation. It argues that the idea of substantive equality is capable of addressing diverse forms of social and economic inequality, and that the legal form of substantive equality adopted by the Constitutional Court, emphasising context, impact, difference and values, has some potential for achieving meaningful social and economic change by and through courts. However, the manner is which the Court has engaged with this legal form suggests that the transformative possibilities of equality are constrained by a number of factors. These include institutional concerns, the capacity and willingness of judges to recognise and address the multiple systemic inequalities that still pervade our society as well as their ability to develop a consistently transformative jurisprudence that applies the ideas of substantive equality to the concepts and doctrines that underpin many equality claims.
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    Data to action: An overview of crime, violence and injury in South Africa
    (Medical Research Council, 2008) Suffla, Shahnaaz; Van Niekerk, Ashley; Bowman, Brett; Matzopoulos, Richard
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    Constitutional Court for South Africa
    (Centre for Applied Legal Studies, 1991-11) Haysom, N. R. L.
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    Mabangalala: The Rise of Right-Wing Vigilantes in South Africa
    (Centre for Applied Legal Studies, 1996) Haysom, Nicholas
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    Who owns South Africa? can the repeal of the Land Act de-racialise land ownership in South Africa?
    (Centre for Applied Legal Studies, 1991-02) Claassens, Aninka
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    Report on the Rabie Report: An Examination of Security Legislation in South Africa
    (1982-03-01) Dugard, John; Marcus, G. J.; Benjamin, P.; Doctor, B.; Mathews, A. S.; Rudolph, H. G.; van Zyl Smit, D.
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    Do blacks have a Right to Family Life? an examination of the concept "Ordinary Residence" in Section 10(1)(c) of the Blacks (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act 25 of 1945, as amended
    (Centre for Applied Legal Studies, 1979) Dixon, Marion L.
    This paper examines the issues arising out of legislation placing restrictions on Blacks' freedom of movement in apartheid South Africa.
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    Implementation of the child support grant: a study of four provinces and recommendations for improved service delivery
    (2008-03-18T11:02:22Z) Goldblatt, Beth; Rosa, Solange; Hall, Katharine
    Since its inception in 1998, the Child Support Grant (CSG) has been rolled out very rapidly and now reaches more than seven million children. It is having a significant impact on the alleviation of poverty by increasing children’s access to food, education and health care. Despite this remarkable achievement, not all poor children are managing to access the grant. The way in which the grant is implemented is not always consistent across provinces or even within provinces. Certain implementation problems mean added burdens for poor primary care-givers in their interaction with the Department of Social Development (DSD), and some of the other government departments. Many of these problems can be easily solved and conditions be improved for grant applicants and beneficiaries. Such improvements would go a long way towards the realisation of all people’s rights to social assistance, as set out in Section 27 of the South African Constitution. Improvements in implementation would also bring current practice in line with administrative law as set out in the Constitution, legislation and common law.