QUALITY ASSURANCE OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN SOUTH AFRICA: A SILVER BULLET OR AN EXPENSIVE EXPERIMENT? AMC INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 28 JULY 2011 DR RONEL BLOM

Presentation Outline Background Quality assurance – the rationale The structures/mechanisms put in place The outcomes The cost Cutting our losses (or the way forward)

Background Where the tekkie hits the tar… Policy borrowing Policy-making Policy implementation Policy avoidance Policy adjustment Policy churn Policy (unintended) consequences

Quality Assurance – the rationale The South African socio-political context Accountability, control and lack of trust Opportunity and access Parity of esteem and equivalence Mobility of students and staff Quality assurance leads to quality education

The structures/mechanisms A quality assurance system Standard setting and quality assurance Quality assurance bodies; quality assurance units; quality assurance consultancies Accounting for what? Relevance of learning Transparency of learning outcomes Accounting to whom? Does weighing the pig make it fatter? Accounting in what manner? The conceptual framework for quality assurance in South Africa

The outcomes Revisiting our assumptions: Trust? Accountability and control? Parity of esteem? Mobility of students and staff? Improvement?

The cost Bureaucracy x 31, including… Departments of Education X 2 Provincial Departments of Education X 9 Wastage of human potential School results Further Education and Training colleges SETA ETQA structures NEET youth Graduate throughput

Cutting our losses (or the way forward) Courage enough to recognise our mistakes Brave enough to stop the bus Strong enough to question our assumptions Honest enough to admit to wastage And then… Redirection of our resources Retraining of our teachers Restructuring our quality assurance Questions? Tomatoes and vrot naartjies?