Is the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) now ready to deliver on its objectives?

Abstract

The article explores the background and context of the development and implementation of South Africa's National Qualifications Framework (NQF). It examines the trajectory of the NQF, how it has been changing and the way in which competing interests have been 'stitched' together in the new consensual policy-making. While the new emerging model for the NQF is said to be clear and unambiguous as to the roles of government, statutory bodies and others and tries to address some of the epistemological issues and political contestations of the past, it is still questionable whether the unchanged objectives will be achieved. It is argued that an integrated approach to education and training as outlined in the original vision of the NQF has been compromised in the new policy and signaled an attempt by the Ministries of Education and Labour to pull the two sides further distant from one another.