The Perils of Outcomes-Based Education in Fostering South African Educational Transformation

This chapter explored a South African education policy. Specifically the author examined outcomes-based learning and the implications of this borrowed curriculum in South African schools. The author focused on curriculum as a platform for discussion of the unique approach that the South African government employed to modify their adoption of democracy and transformation. Unfortunately, many scholars reluctantly concede that South Africa’s ambitious policy initiatives failed to provide social justice in schools. Education is often the driving force in society: socially, economically, and politically. In particular, education can either liberate social ideologies or become a tool to reinforce stratification. With a political ideology of democracy emerging in South Africa, one would think that democratic educational structures would act to diminish race, class and gender inequalities; however, this has not been a pervasive result.