Education service delivery: the disastrous case of outcomes-based qualifications frameworks

Date
2007
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Abstract
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.
Description
Keywords
Outcomes-based education, National qualifications framework, Qualification-driven reform, Education service delivery, South Africa
Citation
Allais, S. M. (2007). Education service delivery: The disastrous case of outcomes-based qualifications frameworks. Progress in Development Studies, 7(1), 65-78. https://doi.org/10.1177/146499340600700106