News on National Qualifications Frameworks in Africa: Mozambique moving forward with instruments supporting implementation.

The Mozambican National Qualifications Framework (NQF) was created by Decree no. 61/2022 of 23 November with the aim of integrating and harmonizing the qualifications awarded within the National Education System, favouring the mobility of students and professionals.

The NQF implementation is coordinated by the body responsible for Public Administration Reform, which is chaired by the Prime Minister. To support the implementation of the NQF, a Technical Committee (CTQNQ) has been set up, which is a cross-sectoral articulation organ composed of different entities.

When it was created, the CTQNQ was given powers (described in Article 19) to propose instruments for the NQF, such as the annual work program and respective budget, the monitoring and evaluation plan and the internal regulations. Two important regulations were developed and approved, namely the Internal Regulations for the functioning of the Technical Committee and the Regulations for the operationalization of the NQF. These documents were produced with the technical and financial support of the project ACQF-II and involved months of hard work and consultation sessions. 

Internal Regulations for the functioning of the Technical Committee (CTQNQ)

This Regulation establishes the competencies, composition and functioning of the Technical Commission of the National Qualifications Framework. This enables the Technical Committee to perform its functions within established norms. The CTQNQ is made up of 10 members drawn from the National Education System (SNE), Public Service, Labour and the Private Sector.

The CTQNQ is chaired by the head of the body responsible for quality assurance in the higher education subsystem. Technical and administrative support for the CTQNQ is provided by a secretariat made up of staff from the body responsible for quality assurance in the higher education subsystem. In terms of functioning, the Regulation spells out how the CTQNQ conducts its business in terms of meetings, agenda, documentation and invitations.

Regulations for the operationalization of the NQF

The materialization of the implementation of the NQF requires a complementary legal instrument for its operationalization aimed at establishing the norms and mechanisms for the design, registration and quality assurance of the qualifications of the different subsystems and indicating the guidelines for the registration of qualifications in the National Qualifications Catalogue. All this is provided in the Regulation for the operationalization of the QNQ. It is a supporting legal instrument for the functioning of the three sub-frameworks.

Implementation challenges

One of the key challenges in the implementation of the NQF is the issue of articulation between the 3 sub-frameworks (General Education; Vocational Education and Higher Education) especially mobility and progression paths between qualifications.

The second challenge is to do with comparability of qualifications at national, regional and international recognition and the lack of linkages between qualifications produced by the National Education System and labour market needs

The third challenge is how qualifications produced are valued in the whole of education and training.

The forth challenge is the lack of adequate capacity and financial resources to fully implement this ambitious NQF project.

Conclusions

The building blocks for the implementation of the NQF in Mozambique have been set-up and what remains to be seen is how the challenges highlighted above can be overcome so that full implementation can be achieved.