This article questions the potential of Outcomes-based education (OBE) in South Africa to be rational and imaginative, that is, creative. Our contention is that the notions of outcomes seems to be trapped in a technicist orientation of deciding in advance what is good and worthwhile for learners to do in education. We argue that OBE is not a sufficient justification of what education means, thus impeding the very act of creative reconstructions of knowledge.