The Regulation of Teacher Education in South Africa through the Development and Implementation of the National Qualifications Framework （1995 to 2005）

Together with National Qualifications Frameworks （NQFs）in England, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand and Australia, the South African NQF is part of a somewhat elite, even notorious, and often criticized group of first generation NQFs that were established between the late 1980s and early 1990s. These NQFs were rooted in the thinking on competency, lifelong learning and outcomes-based education that prevailed in the United Kingdom at the timeH. In the subsequent period up to 2005, more than 30 additional countries have embarked on NQF development, while three regional qualification framework initiatives are also currently underway, one in the Southern African Development Community （SADC）, another in the European Union （EU）, and yet another amongst English-speaking Caribbean countries （Tuck et al., 2006）. In the background of this continued drive for NQF development across the world, I use this paper to reflect critically on the extent to which the development and implementation of the South African NQF has impacted on the regulation of teacher education. In particular I discuss the extent to which： （1） provisioning of teacher education has been quality assured through NQF sub-systems; （2） teacher qualifications and standards have been developed and realigned to NQF requirements to accommodate, amongst others, un- and under-qualified teachers; and （3） professional development points for teachers are being introduced to complement the NQF credit systemt. The paper is concluded with specific observations that may be of value to other countries that are using, or plan to use, NQFs to regulate and improve teacher education.