The gap between policy intentions and outcomes, dubbed ‘implementation incongruence’ by Wildavsky in 1973, remains a major concern in education and other areas of public service. Dr. Godwin Khosa of the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) presents a compelling examination of the persistent issue of implementation incongruence. This paper delves into the intricate process of policy mediation, where achieving intended policy effects demands more than straightforward implementation. Through the lens of two case studies involving the NECT and the Department of Basic Education (DBE), the paper illustrates the challenges of maintaining policy integrity from conception to execution. The case studies demonstrate how programme intentions are diluted by time they reach the intended points of effect, in the same way that an electricity line loses voltage over a distance. Questions are posed about the practice of bureaucracy, which is rooted in hierarchy and red tape and is highly susceptible to complex human behavioural dynamics, and its effects on realising policy intentions.
The Dialogue will delve into insights drawn from the paper which proposes that the mediation of education policies and programmes needs a rethink. The rethink will reduce poor national policy and programme effects, which are a result of ‘implementation incongruence’ over and above poor policy and programme design.