The dilemma of public administration education in South Africa
| Author | Michiel S. de Vries,Hendri Kroukamp |
| DOI | 10.1177/0144739413515266 |
| Date | 01 September 2014 |
| Published date | 01 September 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
The dilemma of public
administration education
in South Africa: Teaching
or learning?
Hendri Kroukamp
University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
Michiel S. de Vries
Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Abstract
This article points to the adverse circumstances in which public administration education
and training has to take place in developing countries, more specifically in South Africa.
This is especially seen in the combination of scarce resources and rapidly increasing
enrolment. The consequence thereof is that the didactics of education and training suffer
in becoming characterized by mere teaching instead of the promotion of learning.
The article points to a serious dilemma especially faced under such difficult circum-
stances,namely that a curriculumeither addressesall the subjectsrelevant from an academic
perspectiveand conformto international accreditationcriteria,and becomes deficientin the
way all these topicsare taught—or opts to prioritize topics basedon a skills-needs analysis
and optimizes theway in which this limited number of topics is learned.
Keywords
South Africa, public administration curriculum, deteriorating boundary conditions,
national policies, quality of learning
Introduction
Developing countries face a series of serious societal problems, which are now increas-
ingly acknowledged as being at leastpartially caused by the inability ofgovernments, and
especially local governments, to deliver services (Kauzya, 2003). Although one might
Corresponding author:
Hendri Kroukamp,University of the Free State, Department of Public Management,PO Box 339, Bloemfontein
9300, South Africa.
Email: kroukhj@ufs.ac.za.
Teaching Public Administration
2014, Vol. 32(2) 158–168
ªThe Author(s) 2014
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0144739413515266
tpa.sagepub.com
To continue reading
Request your trial