Administrative competence essential for NQF ACT

One of the parts of the NQF Act - not yet signed by the President - is the NLRD. The National Learner Records Database. One of the admirable - and necessary - objectives, is to ensure that false claims are not made about qualifications.

However, in order to administer and enable verification of qualification claims requires that the record is accurate, and up-to date.

It is dangerous to include any requirement in a statute that may lead to criminal charges, or fines - if the administering body lacks administrative competence.

There is a Constitutional right to fair administrative action, and so attempting to charge - or fine - someone for non-compliance, when it is the record that is incorrect, will surely lead to legal action. Having to pay compensation for claims, such as: loss of income, or damage to reputation, will be a waste of taxpayers' money.

This contribution arises from personal experience.

When the NQF Act was passed - thankfully, it is still not signed, I thought I would verify my own record on the database. So I applied, and quickly received forms back. As it was Christmas, I thought I would not submit until everyone was back from holiday. So I submitted in the new year.

So far - now April - I still do not have details of my record.

Some time after the application, I received an email querying whether I had changed my ID number. Now, I do not think that citizens can simply say: well, I don't like that number - I will change it.

However, I replied that I recall that some time after our new dispensation started, there was a change to the last 3 digits. I am not sure exactly when, and don't know why, but I think it was about the racial classification - or maybe, that is what I just assumed at the time. I never asked. But surely, the NLRD administrators within SAQA must be more knowledgeable about that than I am?

But I never heard anything further, and I still don't have my record.

What I did find out, is that my first degree - gained in the UK - will not be on it, because foreign qualifications acquired are not included.

Why? I don't know. Surely I cannot be the only person who holds a qualification from an overseas institution?

I did request equivalence for that degree, at some time after I arrived back, but to be fair, it may have been before the NLRD was set up.

Recently, I saw on LinkedIn, one of our bright young people had been accepted to Harvard. When they return, will their qualification be included on the NLRD?

President Ramaphosa chairing the African Union is working towards Africa starting to cooperate, as is the SADC region on qualification frameworks.

Imagine a potential employer recruiting, and trying to verify the qualifications of an applicant. If it's going to take 3 months, then I doubt that they would be able to wait. Maybe for a very senior appointment, but for the cut and thrust of daily business survival - they are hardly going to sit around for an unknown number of months, just waiting for a reply from the NLRD administrators.

I think you will see my point - well it is two points:
* yes, we do need to verify qualifications, but whatever compliance we want to achieve, it has to start with totally efficient administration; and
* we are not an island, we do need to be able to include foreign qualifications.