This paper considers a popular way of looking at the quality of education as a system which receives ‘inputs’ and delivers ‘output’, i.e. what is put into the education system in terms of resources in the broadest sense, and. ‘output’ is what comes out of it in terms of knowledge, skill, understanding, attitude and virtue. The paper argues that this approach is not very helpful and obscures the key issues that any assessment of quality in education needs to address. We find that using the language of inputs and outputs means that we have to address both as they are inextricably entwined. Even when we use this language, important distinctions are missed.
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