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| Formato: | Recurso digital |
| Lenguaje: | inglés |
| Publicado: |
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2025
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| Acceso en línea: | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17542140 |
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| _version_ | 1866902076286566400 |
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| author | Kabane, Gqira |
| author_facet | Kabane, Gqira |
| contents | <p>This policy concept paper is part of an ongoing national conversation on how South Africa recognises diverse forms of knowledge within its education and training system. It argues that <strong>Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)</strong>, once a mechanism of redress, must now evolve into a strategic instrument of <em>social and cognitive justice</em> that values <strong>knowledge derived from practice</strong> alongside formal academic production.</p> <p>Drawing on more than two decades of leadership, training, and system development experience, the author identifies major weaknesses within the existing RPL ecosystem. Chief among these are:</p> <ol> <li> <p><strong>Evaluation inequity</strong>—where practitioners are measured by academic publication standards rather than practical results;</p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Data fragmentation</strong>—where accredited learning achievements, even those under Eskom College, City Power, the University of Pretoria, and SABS, remain absent from the <strong>National Learners’ Records Database (NLRD)</strong>; and</p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Institutional misalignment</strong>—where Quality Councils apply inconsistent criteria, leaving most workplace and community learning invisible in official statistics.</p> </li> </ol> <p>The paper calls for the creation of a <strong>dual evaluation rubric</strong>:</p> <ul> <li> <p>an <em>Academic Rubric</em> for traditional research pathways, and</p> </li> <li> <p>a <em>Practice-and-Results Rubric</em> that evaluates competence through applied leadership, indigenous continuity, creative innovation, mentorship, environmental stewardship, and measurable community impact.</p> </li> </ul> <p>This approach operationalises the vision of the <strong>DHET White Paper for Post-School Education and Training (2013)</strong> to <em>“broaden access through alternative pathways.”</em> It also gives practical effect to <strong>Shiv Visvanathan’s (2009)</strong> principle of <em>cognitive justice</em>—the right to different ways of knowing—and <strong>Boaventura de Sousa Santos’s (2014)</strong> claim that <em>there is no social justice without cognitive justice</em>.</p> <p>To complement this theoretical shift, the paper introduces the <strong>SmartBridge™ open-source digital governance framework</strong> as a <em>policy laboratory</em>. SmartBridge™ demonstrates how learner evidence, RPL decisions, and appeals can be digitally captured, verified, and audited across institutions using <strong>open credential standards</strong> such as <strong>Open Badges</strong>, <strong>Comprehensive Learner Record</strong>, and <strong>W3C Verifiable Credentials</strong>. This model aims to transform fragmented record-keeping into a <strong>transparent, traceable, and equitable national data ecosystem</strong> that finally links practice to policy.</p> <p>The paper forms part of the author’s broader research trajectory as an <strong>RPL practitioner and systems innovator</strong>, intersecting leadership, education policy, and digital governance. It will underpin a forthcoming <strong>Parliamentary submission</strong> to the <strong>Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Innovation</strong>, advocating for the inclusion of practitioner voices in the design of new RPL evaluation rubrics and the re-engineering of the NLRD.</p> <p>This record is uploaded under <strong>embargo</strong> for provenance and intellectual protection. The DOI date establishes authorship while full public release will follow after stakeholder consultation. Readers are invited to reference this work as a foundation for ongoing dialogue on <strong>epistemic justice, indigenous knowledge recognition, and open-governance reform</strong> in South Africa’s higher-education landscape.</p> |
| format | Recurso digital |
| id | zenodo_https___doi_org_10_5281_zenodo_17542140 |
| institution | Zenodo |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publisher | Zenodo |
| record_format | zenodo |
| spellingShingle | BRIDGING POLICY AND PRACTICE: A PROPOSAL FOR RPL RUBRIC REFORM AND OVERHAUL OF THE NATIONAL LEARNERS' RECORDS DATABASE (NLRD) Kabane, Gqira <p>This policy concept paper is part of an ongoing national conversation on how South Africa recognises diverse forms of knowledge within its education and training system. It argues that <strong>Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)</strong>, once a mechanism of redress, must now evolve into a strategic instrument of <em>social and cognitive justice</em> that values <strong>knowledge derived from practice</strong> alongside formal academic production.</p> <p>Drawing on more than two decades of leadership, training, and system development experience, the author identifies major weaknesses within the existing RPL ecosystem. Chief among these are:</p> <ol> <li> <p><strong>Evaluation inequity</strong>—where practitioners are measured by academic publication standards rather than practical results;</p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Data fragmentation</strong>—where accredited learning achievements, even those under Eskom College, City Power, the University of Pretoria, and SABS, remain absent from the <strong>National Learners’ Records Database (NLRD)</strong>; and</p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Institutional misalignment</strong>—where Quality Councils apply inconsistent criteria, leaving most workplace and community learning invisible in official statistics.</p> </li> </ol> <p>The paper calls for the creation of a <strong>dual evaluation rubric</strong>:</p> <ul> <li> <p>an <em>Academic Rubric</em> for traditional research pathways, and</p> </li> <li> <p>a <em>Practice-and-Results Rubric</em> that evaluates competence through applied leadership, indigenous continuity, creative innovation, mentorship, environmental stewardship, and measurable community impact.</p> </li> </ul> <p>This approach operationalises the vision of the <strong>DHET White Paper for Post-School Education and Training (2013)</strong> to <em>“broaden access through alternative pathways.”</em> It also gives practical effect to <strong>Shiv Visvanathan’s (2009)</strong> principle of <em>cognitive justice</em>—the right to different ways of knowing—and <strong>Boaventura de Sousa Santos’s (2014)</strong> claim that <em>there is no social justice without cognitive justice</em>.</p> <p>To complement this theoretical shift, the paper introduces the <strong>SmartBridge™ open-source digital governance framework</strong> as a <em>policy laboratory</em>. SmartBridge™ demonstrates how learner evidence, RPL decisions, and appeals can be digitally captured, verified, and audited across institutions using <strong>open credential standards</strong> such as <strong>Open Badges</strong>, <strong>Comprehensive Learner Record</strong>, and <strong>W3C Verifiable Credentials</strong>. This model aims to transform fragmented record-keeping into a <strong>transparent, traceable, and equitable national data ecosystem</strong> that finally links practice to policy.</p> <p>The paper forms part of the author’s broader research trajectory as an <strong>RPL practitioner and systems innovator</strong>, intersecting leadership, education policy, and digital governance. It will underpin a forthcoming <strong>Parliamentary submission</strong> to the <strong>Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Innovation</strong>, advocating for the inclusion of practitioner voices in the design of new RPL evaluation rubrics and the re-engineering of the NLRD.</p> <p>This record is uploaded under <strong>embargo</strong> for provenance and intellectual protection. The DOI date establishes authorship while full public release will follow after stakeholder consultation. Readers are invited to reference this work as a foundation for ongoing dialogue on <strong>epistemic justice, indigenous knowledge recognition, and open-governance reform</strong> in South Africa’s higher-education landscape.</p> |
| title | BRIDGING POLICY AND PRACTICE: A PROPOSAL FOR RPL RUBRIC REFORM AND OVERHAUL OF THE NATIONAL LEARNERS' RECORDS DATABASE (NLRD) |
| url | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17542140 |