The NQF and Quality Assurance

1 THE NATIONALQUALIFICATIONSFRAMEWORKAND QUALITYASSURANCEQ uality does not happenby accident. It requirescommitment and constantattention from all thosewho are involved in theprocess. S B A IsaacsWrite to us atPostnet Suite 248, Private Bag X06 WATERKLOOF, 0145 Visit us at:659 Pienaar Street (cnr. Waterkloof Road)BROOKLYN, PretoriaTelephone us at012 - 482 0800 Switchboard012 - 482 0802 Executive Office012 - 482 0836 Resource Centre and general information 012 - 482 0810 Strategic Support 012 - 482 0810 Communications012 - 482 0807 Standards Setting and Development012 - 482 0805 Quality Assurance and Development012 - 482 0858 Evaluation of Educational QualificationsFax us at012 - 346 5813 Executive Office012 - 346 5809 Secretariat 012 - 346 5809 Communications012 - 346 5812 Standards Setting and Development012 - 346 5814 Quality Assurance and Developmente-mail us our website new numbers will be in

2 Operation from 1 August date: May 2000 Funded by the European Union under the European Programmefor Reconstruction are the basic commitments in the NQF Quality system? is SAQA s understanding of Quality ? NQF Quality is Quality Assurance for the NQF and how will it Standards Setting and Quality Assurance together in the Quality will Quality Assurance feed back in standards setting processes? the integrity of the Quality system: the separation of standards setting bodies from Quality Assurance for implementing NQF and ASSURANCETHE national QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORKSAQA s MissionTo ensure the development and implementation of aNational Qualifications Framework which contributes tothe full development of each learner and to the social andeconomic development of the nation at national QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK(NQF) AND Quality ASSURANCEThe NQF is a social construct whose meaning has been and will contin-ue to be negotiated by the people, for the people.

3 It is a lifelong learn -ing system that brings together South Africans from a variety of socio-eco-nomic backgrounds representing a variety of worldviews, thinking, practiceand experience to negotiate and define Quality through the synthesis are the basic commitments in the NQFquality system?Words and phrases like: standards, Quality , excellence, best practice,competent, qualified, knowledgeable, expert, are often used todescribe the necessary and desirable outcomes of education and trainingpractices. In developing and implementing the national QualificationsFramework, these words have taken on particular meanings that guideSouth African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) practices and practice in outlining and developing the integrated approach to out-comes-based education and training in South Africa has been to reservestandardsfor the units and qualifications registered on the NQF and qual-ity assurancefor learning and assessment provision.

4 The two key elements, standards and Quality and the NQF standardssetting and Quality Assurance processes, are built on the following basic tenets: Knowledge, relevant for the current world, is created through partner-ships amongst various groupings in society, from academics andresearchers to business, from workers to professional experts, from gov-ernment to community organisations, from learners to professors. Inother words, knowledge creation is no longer the preserve of narrowly-defined groups of experts ; and The national system of education and training must balance the need forquality education for all citizens with the need for flexibility to cater forthe wide-ranging circumstances that face learners and the wide-rangingoptions for delivering what constitutes relevant credits and qualifica-tions.

5 In other words, it must balance society s needs with the needs ofthe is SAQA s understanding of Quality ? The commitment to developing representative and participatory process-es and structures in which a variety of views, thinking, practice andexperience are brought to bear on the development and implementation ofTHE national QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORKQUALITY ASSURANCEA publication of the South African Qualifications Authority3 The national system ofeducation and trainingmust balance society sneeds with the needsof the NQF points to an understanding of Quality . Implicit is the notion that thedefinition and understanding of Quality is arrived at through broad partici-pation, negotiation and synthesis.

6 The objectives of the NQF offer a basis for a second common under-standing of Quality . The NQF seeks to establish a coherent, integrative edu-cation and training system that provides a platform for a unifying is a register for nationally agreed and internationally acceptable crediblestandards, expressed as learning outcomes, that are relevant to personaldevelopment and national socio-economic development. It is also flexibleallowing for access, mobility, and progression in the system through thearticulation and portability of credits and qualifications, the recognition oflearning acquired in different ways, the provision of guidance and the estab-lishment of acceleration mechanisms for the redress of past unfair discrim-ination.

7 Quality indicators for the NQF will encompass these objectives would point to Quality in the following way:Integration: Qualifications and Standards would be expected to inte-grate theory and practice, and, skills, knowledge, values and , systems and practices of learning provision (learning, teaching andassessment including learning programmes, materials, activities etc) leadingtowards the acquisition of qualifications and standards the same integrationwould be outcomes: Qualifications and standards would be expected toclearly state the expected skills, knowledge, values and attitudes to beacquired and level and standard expected of these in order to guide learnersand facilitators of learning.

8 The learning provision would also be expectedto be designed such that these are , mobility and progression:Qualifications and standards wouldbe expected to be designed in a way that ensures that they do not lead learn -ers to a dead end, that they allow for continued learning and for improvedemployment opportunities. Learning provision would be expected to ensurethat learning is a process of building knowledge and : Qualifications and standards would be expected to ensure thatthe potential of citizens that were previously denied education and trainingopportunities is brought to the fore and recognised so that they can beimproved for the individual s development and the contry s social-political-economic and national Development.

9 Qualifications and standardswould be expected to ensure that learners are developed so that they can beresponsible for their own social-political-economic development and for thereconstruction and development of the country. Learning provision wouldbe expected to ensure the realisation of the summary, the above elements would be some of the criteria for mak-ing judgement about whether what is being provided is educationally sound. For a further understanding of Quality it is also important to understandwhy the principles embedded in the objectives underpin the NQF. Education and, to a less visible extent, training have been contested ter-rain throughout most of South Africa s history.

10 The roots of the NQF lie inthese contestations and in the necessity for all South Africans to be able toequip themselves with the tools needed to negotiate life positively and pro-ductively. Quality ASSURANCETHE national QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORKE ducation and traininghave been contestedterrain throughoutmost of South Africa shistory. The roots ofthe NQF lie in thesecontestations and inthe necessity for allSouth Africans to beable to equipthemselves with thetools needed tonegotiate life positivelyand publication of the South African Qualifications AuthorityDuring the late 1980s and early 1990s the largest stakeholders in edu-cation and training have been engaged in a process of looking at what SouthAfrica needs for individual and general human resources development, nowand in the future, within the national requirements for equity, developmentand growth.