NALEDI SHOTA|

Parliament’s portfolio committee on social development has called for better care and treatment of children living with disabilities. 

This is after the committee learned while in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga that some children with disabilities do not go to school and are instead locked in back rooms by their parents. 

These revelations were made to the committee while it was in the area for public hearings into the Children’s Amendment Bill. 

“The Bill is intended to resolve numerous challenges relating to the welfare of children and those include parental responsibilities of unmarried fathers, child marriages, services to children born to foreign parents, and unaccompanied migrant children,” according to the committee. 

One of the participants in the hearings, Mofenyi Tshilwane told the committee that parents of children with disabilities need support. 

“It is not because the parents like the conditions the children live in but they don’t have support, they need to be empowered,” he said. 

READ: Sexual assaults and violence at South Africa’s schools

Acting chairperson of the committee Nkhensani Bilankulu also said that the committee had learned that learners are victims of rape and the perpetrators are teachers who never face consequences because they are defended by teacher unions. 

“Teacher unions can never be justified in defending alleged rapists in schools, if there are cases of such need to be reported to the police. We also learn that some educators are protected by management due to the importance of learning areas they teach. The committee appealed to community members that they need to be vigilant when it comes to issues and safety of children at schools,” said Bilankulu.

Last month, the South African Human Rights Commission held public hearings in Limpopo looking at corporal punishment, sexual relations between teachers and learners and bullying. 

Those hearings also heard that teachers who have sexual relations with learners are protected by unions or principals fail to report the misconduct to the department of education. 

Bilankulu said schools need to be a safe space for learners and: “… In cases where rapes have occurred, the educators’ code of conduct needs to prevail with proper follow up of such incidents by all stakeholders, the South African Police Service, school management, School Governing Bodies and teacher unions”.

Early this year Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, gazetted regulations that state that if a teacher has been found guilty and dismissed for having sexual relations with a learner that teacher will be banned for life from the teaching profession. 

Bilankulu promised the residents of Bushbuckridge that the issues they had raised during the  hearings will be escalated to the relevant  government departments. 

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NYAKALLO TEFU| 

A grade 12 learner from Coligny Secondary School in the North West won the final round of a Virtual Mathematics Competition (VMC2021).

18-year-old Boitumelo Mohulatsi like other learners submitted his videos to the ‘Mthethwamatics Facebook’ page solving various mathematical problems.

VMC founder Dr Simo Mthethwa said the main aim of the competition is to educate the society about some principles, fundamental concepts and theorems in mathematics.

Mthethwa said knowledge of mathematics is not a pre-requisite to participate because the aim is to educate

“The learning component of this competition is done through allowing participants to consult with whomever that may be able to assist them, be it a teacher, tutor or parent.

“Once the participant is confident to have grasped the concept then the video (2 mins) detailing the solution should be conducted and submitted to them.

 “There is no limit to the tools and creativity that may be used to present the solution or explanation,” said Mthethwa.

READ: STEM: Extra Maths On A Mobile Device: A South African Study Shows It’s Not That Simple

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, most competitions and activities at schools across the country are being done virtually, where possible.

The VMC is normally done through seminars and various educational programmes.

The competition was divided into Grade R to Grade 12 according to South African phases. Each phase had a  problem/challenge to solve and explain.

Mohulatsi said the competition has taught him that he can do better.

“With each challenge we solve, not just my own, I learned a lot from others. It actually taught me that it’s not about what you know but from sharing and understanding concepts that makes you better”, said Mohulatsi.

READ: Maths and Science Tutor Gives Hope To Students In Soshanguve

MEC for Education in the North West Mmaphefo Matsemela has congratulated Mohulatsi, saying she has been cheering him on.

“I am happy for Boitumelo’s win. His dedication and passion for Mathematics proved his determination. This certainly paves a way for him towards his tertiary studies and I hope that his passion for mathematics is an inspiration to his peers as well,” said Matsemela.

The competition also aims to promote mathematics to a wider audience, over and above schools.

“We intend to do this through asking participants/contestant to explain necessary concepts in mathematics,” said Mthethwa.

Excited about his win, Mohulatsi said his motivation comes from online advanced mathematics he does when he is not at school.

“I would advise my peers to take maths as a challenge. Forget about your background or school you come from, focus on the solving a challenge. That’s the fun thing about mathematics,” said Mohulatsi.

Matsemela said this is an achievement for Mohulatsi, his school and his peers, and wished Mohulatsi many happy returns.

READ: Soweto Grade 12 Pupil Receives A Bronze Medal At 61st International Maths Ambassador

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STEPHANIE ALLAIS|

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected not only how we live, think and work but also how we acquire skills. This is particularly crucial for young people, large numbers of whom are excluded from labour market. South Africa’s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey showed joblessness for those aged between 15 and 34 at 46,3%.

To address the challenges of skills provision and acquisition, policy makers and researchers have set their sights on the vocational education and training system. But the view that this alone is the answer to solve existing labour market crises is flawed for three reasons.

First, it ignores the main problem – the lack of demand for labour. Second, it highlights a lack of understanding of how skills are developed, and that the nature of the economy shapes the nature of skills produced.

And third, it disregards the fact that the existing weaknesses of the vocational and education training system are caused by lack of labour demand and insufficient analysis of the role of the economy in shaping skill formation.

The relationships between education, poverty and inequality in South Africa are complex. Labour markets are a key determinant of inequality. But lack of demand for skilled labour outweighs lack of skilled workers. Nonetheless, building the skills of the workforce remains a crucial part of economic development and reconstruction.

READ: South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis – a ticking time bomb

In terms of skills development, a complex array of institutions and policies have been established since 1994 in an attempt to improve relationships between labour markets and education providers.

Incentives have been created to encourage employers to provide training to their workers and pre-employed people.

However, these policies and institutions have met with many challenges.

One is that the institutional environment is now complex and expensive, without much visible improvement in the system. There’s little to show for years of reform, as well as an extensive range of donor initiatives to support projects, policy reforms, and institutional reform.

One example is the Technical and Vocational Education and Training system. This has been the subject of many reforms. But policy makers and industry continue to argue that the system remains weak and that the colleges don’t meet their needs.

On top of this the qualifications system is enormously complex. Layers of new qualifications and ways of designing qualifications have been added, without removing the previous ones.

Against this backdrop, our research set out to understand the impact of Covid-19 on skills formation in South Africa.

The pandemic has heightened existing weaknesses in the system. Few vocational colleges have the necessary facilities for online learning. Also, few students have the prior educational background that makes online learning workable.

Only 10 out of 50 colleges had learner management systems enabling online teaching and learning. Some sought to make tutorials available on social media. However, often lecturers didn’t have their own data or even a quiet place to teach from. Learners faced the same problems.

READ: Students suffered mental health during lockdown, survey reveals

The second area affected by the pandemic is workplace placements. As a result of the pandemic, companies have been unable to accommodate learners. This has similarly been a long standing challenge.

A third affected area is funding: the skills system has lost about R6.1 billion as a result of suspension of the skills levy during the lockdown and other factors. The levy was suspended as part of tax relief to companies during the pandemic.

A further issue affecting the skills development system is the qualification system. What’s lacking is a balance between shorter training programmes and long-term formal qualifications. The advocates of micro-credentials – these are industry aligned short courses which have a narrow focus on preparation for work – are suggesting them as the solution to this lack of balance.

The Quality Council on Trades and Occupations – established in 2010 to set standards for and quality assure qualifications linked to a trade or occupation – has recently reconfigured occupational qualifications. These include revisiting the formal requirement for workplace experience, which learners now simply cannot get (and most could not get before COVID-19).

It has also introduced new regulations to address the need for short programmes which can only be accredited as a “part qualification”, which is constituted by credits within a full qualification. Full qualifications are now defined in terms of number of credits.

This step sought to address the proliferation of part qualifications that didn’t lead to a full qualification, as well as qualifications of varied sizes. But it created the unintended consequence of negating the possibility that industry associations could determine the need for a short programme that is accredited and that enables the graduate to access a specific opportunity in the workplace.

Thus, the organising logic is based on where qualifications exist rather than on where demand is.

The lack of success is partly due to the flawed idea that market mechanisms will ensure more responsive, agile, demand-led Technical and Vocational Education and Training, using qualifications, including “micro-credentials”, as a policy lever.

The focus is on the need for agility and short-term relevance. Reforms have emphasised employers specifying the skills or competences they require, and education and training institutions being given funding for courses that attempt to lead to these specific competences.

This should, according to advocates, enable educational institutions to provide only the required competences and thereby enable “consumers” – employers or individuals trying to equip themselves in labour markets – to purchase only the “bits” that they want without having to sit through long educational programmes.

In this magical world vocation and education training will ensure that:

curricula are decentralised and therefore responsive,employers can specify their needs, andboth public and private providers can be held accountable as their programmes can be measured against the competences delivered.

But this is a simplistic supply and demand notion. Policy reforms based on it take no account of how skills are actually developed for work in the real economy.

The approach also works against building strong, robust, healthy institutions.

South Africa needs to focus on supporting institutions, building partnerships with employers, and ensuring that thinking about skills is incorporated into industrial policy processes.

Our research highlights the need to think about the quality of work and organisation of workplaces as well as skills development inside industrial policy and inside different economic sector strategies. This also requires having formal providers of vocational education and training to be embedded inside the industries.

One implication of this is the need for industry- or sector-specific and not general strategies for skills development.

In addition, education institutions should offer broad vocational and education training qualifications that include components of general education and components of locally needed skills.

At the same time, we need better funding mechanisms for shorter accredited programmes that are recognised by employers and professional associations, and less formal, responsive short courses.

This requires deeper relationships between colleges and employers. It also requires more support for institutions providing the training and a set of qualifications that focus on occupational streams and clusters.

Finally and most importantly, skills policy needs to be in line with an economic recovery focused on jobs.

Skills planning needs to be incorporated inside the industrial policy process instead of an add-on.

READ: Ramaphosa has no plausible strategy for reducing youth unemployment

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DUMA GQUBULE|

In the face of soaring unemployment, which has created an unviable society, and brutal energy blackouts in the middle of winter, President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced two structural reform gimmicks that will do little to resolve the country’s immediate economic and power crises.

According to Stats SA’s latest survey, the expanded unemployment rate for black Africans was 47.9% during the first quarter of 2021. For black African females it was 51.5%. In the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, the unemployment rates for people of all races were 49.6% and 49.5% respectively. The expanded youth unemployment rate was a staggering 74.7%.

Since December 2008, the economy has created only 226,000 jobs and the labour force has increased by 5.7-million people. The number of unemployed people has soared by 5.5- million to 11.4-million people.

Ramaphosa’s gimmicks for the crisis have delivered nothing.

READ: Ramaphosa has no plausible strategy for reducing youth unemployment

The jobs summit agreement of October 2018 was supposed to create 275,000 jobs a year. The Youth Employment Scheme was supposed to create 1-million jobs. It has created 55,000 so-called work opportunities.

We do not know how many of these people are still working.

The decision to increase the licensing threshold for embedded generation projects to 100MW was billed as a game-changer that would kick-start the government’s economic recovery plan and help with the energy crisis. The decision will create investment of R75bn and new power capacity of 5,000MW between 2022 and 2024. That is equivalent to only 0.5% of GDP a
year. This is no game-changer.

Austerity measures of R264.9bn over the next three years — 0.5% of GDP in 2020/2021, 1.5% of GDP in 2022/2023 and 2.5% of GDP 2023/2024 — and leakages through imports will cancel out the impact of the small increase in investment. Let us be clear: the government does not have an infrastructure-led recovery plan. It has committed only 0.1% of GDP a year for the next three years to a R100bn infrastructure fund that the president announced in 2018.

READ: Youth unemployment: Is the solution a change in mindset?

Since the new capacity will be available only in 2024 or 2025, the president’s announcement will not tackle the immediate crisis of energy blackouts. Eskom’s year-to-date energy availability factor has collapsed to 60.78%. Regularly, about a third of the utility’s capacity is down.

The announcement will also accelerate the utility’s death spiral.

What the government has given to the private sector, it will take from Eskom, which will lose its key customers. The decline in sales revenues, which have collapsed by 12.5% since 2014, will accelerate. There will be higher price increases to cover for the reduced utilisation of generation capacity. The government will have to increase its bailouts to Eskom. The liberalisation of the sector will increase energy inequality in a country where the rich have already left public services such as health, education and security.

A few large companies will be able to exit the grid, but 224,000 formal small and medium enterprises will not have this option. There will be two energy systems — one for rich households and a few large companies who will have 24/7 power, and another one for millions of South Africans who will continue to rely on a mismanaged Eskom and experience blackouts.

READ: South Africa’s youth unemployment – a ticking time bomb

The post Much more needed than Ramaphosa’s reform gimmicks appeared first on Inside Education.

NYAKALLO TEFU|

Parents say they are worried about the Department of Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, gazetting that on 26 July learners in grade R to seven are to return to class daily as well as grade R to 12 at special education needs schools.

The minister’s decision has been placed under further scrutiny following President Ramaphosa’s announcement last night that the country has been moved from alert Level 2 to alert Level 3 as the number of Covid-19 cases continue to rise across the country.

Ramaphosa said South Africa has never experienced a health crisis of this severity before, nor one so prolonged.

“A third wave of infections is upon us. We have to contain this new wave of infections.

 “The average number of daily new infections has doubled. Over the last seven days, we have recorded an average of 7,500 daily infections. Hospital admissions due to COVID-19 over the last 14 days are 59 per cent higher than the preceding 14 days,” said Ramaphosa.

The president added that the average number of people who die from Covid-19 each day has increased by 48 per cent from 535 two weeks ago to 791 in the past seven days. 

He said four provinces – Gauteng, the Free State, North West and the Northern Cape province – are officially in a third wave, while others are approaching that point. Ramaphosa said the proportion of Covid tests that are positive are also continuing to rise in Gauteng, Limpopo, Western Cape, the Free State and Kwa-Zulu Natal.
 
“Of these, Gauteng has been the worst hit. 

“In view of the rising infections, we have therefore decided to move the country to Alert Level 3,” said Ramaphosa.

Adding that the country’s mass vaccination programme has also encountered several setbacks.

Inside Education reported on Monday that the vaccination of educators has been put on hold following the announcement on Sunday by the department of health that over two million Johnson and Johnson (J&J) vaccines are contaminated.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Saturday ordered that over 60 million J&J vaccine doses be discarded after concerns that they could be contaminated at the manufacturing plant.

READ: Unions wait in bated breath for details on the vaccination of educators

It is against this backdrop that parents have raised concerns about their children going back to school.

Motshekga said the current rotational system in place is no longer working.

“It really worries me that we are going to erode the foundations for learning,” said Motshekga.

She said learners were missing out on a lot of work because they would come in one week and skip the next.

READ: DBE Portfolio Committee supports return to class full-time for primary and special education learners

“We continue to monitor the trajectory of the pandemic and make all necessary regulations and directions in line with the Covid-19 risk-adjusted differentiated strategy. I realise that there is anxiety about sending all primary school children back to school at once. There’s no need to panic. Our decision making is supported by empirical evidence,” said Motshekga.

READ: Malema gives Motshekga seven days to shut down schools as Covid-19 cases rise in children

This decision taken by the minister is despite the fact that more learners and staff are getting infected by the virus, with Gauteng reporting 2000 cases just last week.

Gauteng Department of Education Spokesperson Steve Mabona said the provincial department can confirm that a growing number of children are testing positive in Gauteng schools, “and where it is recommended by the Department of Health for us to close schools, we will do so,” he said.

But the spokesperson said no decision to close down schools has been taken as yet.

READ: ‘Schools cannot open if all health protocols are not in place’ say teachers and parents

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NALEDI SHOTA| 

A survey on how Covid-19 impacted on the education and learning of young people in higher education has revealed that a majority of them suffered from mental health and also that others had difficulties communicating with their institutions while at home. 

The survey titled, Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth in the Post School Education and Training (PSET) Sector in South Africa was released by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology on Monday. 

The survey looked at 13 119 students from universities, Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, community colleges and private higher education institutions and was done by Higher Health and the Human Sciences Research Council. Higher Health is a health, wellness and development agency of the department of higher education, science and innovation. 

According to the survey, over 65% of students experienced mild to severe psychological distress. 

“A higher proportion of 18-19 year olds reported severe psychological distress (37.5%) than 25-29 year olds (28.7%) and 30-35 year olds (29.9%). Psychological distress was more prevalent among female than male students, and in those with high self-perceived risk of becoming infected with Covid-19,”  reads the survey. 

READ: Classroom Management: School Reopening Conversation Shines A Light On Student Mental Health

The target for the survey was young people between the ages of 18 to 35 and was done from June until September last year. 

The survey says that 40% of the students interviewed had moved back home during the lockdown, and half the students said they had difficulty communicating with their institutions during lockdown while at home. It was mostly TVET college students at 38% that experienced the most difficulty. 

“Two thirds of students (66.2%) from TVET colleges found it difficult to communicate with their institutions, followed by those in university of technology with 63.7%. Most private college students found it easy to communicate with their colleges,”  reads the survey. 

Fifty seven percent of the  students also said the “main challenges” that they experienced during lockdown were loss of study time, 55.8% said it was not having money for personal items for studying while 42.2% said it was the loss of social contact and 40.1% said it was not having money for food. 

Only 3.5% of the students said they did not have access to the internet for their studies while on lockdown, while 42.7% said they had access through the data bundles provided by their institutions and 29.2% relied on prepaid data bundles. 

“Students reported if their institution provided virtual learning. Over 90% of students at private colleges and 80% of university students reported that their institutions provided virtual learning. Significantly fewer (38.1%) TVET students indicated that their institution provided the capacity to conduct virtual learning. Overall 66% rated their institution’s e-learning portal during lockdown as good or excellent, and 23.4% thought their institution’s e-learning portal was of poor quality.” 

Speaking on the release of the results of the survey, Nzimande said the survey has provided crucial data and learnings that would help the sector when it’s hit with a similar public health emergency in future. 

“I am pleased to hear that students received support from their institutions in the areas of online learning, provision of data free bundles and data free access to the online learning platform and the university website.

I empathise with our students for the challenges that they faced during hard lockdown and the challenges that they continue to face,”  he said. 

READ: Thokozane Ngcongwane: My Roller-coaster Ride Of Mental Health

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NALEDI SHOTA|

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has unmasked another Covid-19 rot in an education department. 

And this time it is the North West Department of Education where an SIU investigation has found that the department irregularly appointed a service provider but there is no proof that the service provider delivered. 

In a short statement on Monday, the SIU said that its investigation has revealed “that   [the] North West education department irregularly appointed service providers to supply 50 000 masks to the tune of R1.2m.”

Adding that it could not be determined whether the] masks were indeed delivered.

The SIU said it will kick start civil proceedings. 

The revelations come after the SIU uncovered irregularities in the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) where the department paid R431 million to companies to decontaminate schools between June and August last year. 

READ: SIU freezes accounts of decontamination companies contracted by GDE

Last week, the SIU froze seven more bank accounts of companies that were irregularly appointed by the GDE to decontaminate schools. The value of the bank accounts was R22.4 million. 

Last month, it announced that it had been granted an order to freeze 14 bank accounts and assets to the value of R40.7 million belonging to 14 companies that were also irregularly appointed to do work in schools. 

READ: SIU freezes more bank accounts of companies linked to the GP department of education tender for sanitizing schools

The post SIU uncovers PPE rot in the North West department of education appeared first on Inside Education.

THEBE MABANGA|

Lerato Malau (32) from Kwa Thema in Ekurhuleni has a degree in Human Resources but has never been able to find work in her field since graduating five years ago.

Malau says she is instead finding short term roles as an administrator at a local doctor’s rooms or a cashier at a large retail chain.

“I took the cashier role hoping it can lead to opportunities to be trained as a manager or lead to an opportunity in human resources, but in the year, I was there no opening occurred,” she say in reference to a stint that was cut short on the onset of Covid 19 pandemic.

Adding that her work hours were immediately reduced at the onset of the lockdown.

Malau is now hoping to register for Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resources as a way of updating her knowledge in the field and hopefully landing a proper job.

Experts say South Africa’s youth will continue to face bleak employment prospects unless the country creates jobs aimed at lower skilled and lower paid workers to absorb the armies of the unemployed in the short term and in the medium to long term.

According to two prominent economists, the country must undertake major economic reforms and better manage public resources to create employment.

Last week, Statistics SA reported that there are now 7,2 million unemployed people out of a workforce population of 22,2 million, to yield and unemployment rate of 32, 6%. This number excludes the 3,1 million job seekers who have given up looking for work. Stats SA’s latest survey shows that the expanded unemployment rate for black Africans was 47.9% during the first quarter of 2021. For black African females it was 51.5%. In the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, the unemployment rates for people of all races were 49.6% and 49.5% respectively. The expanded youth unemployment rate was a staggering 74.7%.

READ: South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis – a ticking time bomb

In an interview with Inside Education, economist and founding director for the Centre for Economic Development and Transformation Duma Gqubule said South Africa should aim to create jobs for the workforce that it has not the workforce it wishes it had.

Gqubule said the country must aim to absorb low and semi-skilled workers through labour intensive sectors that have high employment multiplier and job creation potential. These include agriculture and manufacturing, he said.

In his analysis of the labour market between December 2008 – at the start of the Global Financial Crisis – and the end of first quarter of 2021’s Quarterly Labour Statistics released by Stats SA this month, Gqubule found that over the 13-year period, South Africa created only 226 000 jobs while its labour force has grown by 5,7 million over the same period.

He said the manufacturing sector, frequently cited as a source of new jobs, has in reality lost 600 000 jobs while the trade sector lost 356 000.

According to Gqubule, financial services added 758 000 jobs in the period an indication of where jobs of the future might lie.

Gqubule said he uses the broader definition of unemployment, which includes discouraged work seekers, and puts unemployment at 43,2%.  He said South Africa should look to areas such as the green economy to create jobs.

READ: Youth unemployment: A catastrophe

Iraj Abedian, the CEO of Pan African Advisory Services said without implementing urgent reforms, South Africa will not achieve a dent in its unemployment rate.

He said unemployment will not be addressed by policy ideas, but actual implementation.

“For example, policy conversations about freeing up the communication spectrum have gone on for more than a decade.  

“Freeing up the spectrum sill improve access to the internet and general connectivity and lead to competitive telecoms pricing. This will benefit all sectors including the service sectors and even agriculture, which requires reliable connectivity before the exchange of goods,” said Abedian.

Last week, President Ramaphosa announced that the threshold for embedded generation will be lifted from 1MW to 100 MW.

This announcement was welcomed by many in the business sector and some analysts. Abedian called the move a step in the right direction but noting that it will not be enough on its own and “could have been done a decade ago”.

According to Abedian, reforming the energy sector earlier could have created between 250 000 to 300 000 jobs in the sector itself before boosting other sectors.  

He said apart from telecoms and energy, South Africa also requires reform in areas such as logistics and transport, where government aims to free up space in rail and ports to make them more competitive.

The lack of employment or employment opportunities is even more dire when one looks at youth unemployment. Gqubule told Inside Education that there are 2,3 million unemployed young people.

He said government efforts aimed at addressing youth unemployment have so far yielded limited results.

“The Youth Employment services of the Presidency set out to create 3 million jobs for young people but according to its website, has created 55 000 opportunities,” he said, calling this lack of progress “shameful”.

Abedian told Inside Education that the problem with South Africa’s youth is that the 1994 democratic breakthrough coincided with technological revolution which has evolved to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, yet the country’s education system did not keep up with this change, which then rendered its youth skills irrelevant.

 “The mismanagement of public resources and corruption has not helped matters,” said Abedian.

He added that unemployed young people, especially graduates, require “a change of mindset and reskilling” to suit the job market.

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NYAKALLO TEFU|

Youth day, a day when we commemorate the youth of 1976 who fought against inequality and oppression caused by apartheid in South Africa.

45 years later, we are a youth with very little to celebrate.

45 years later we struggle to find jobs, yet we are an educated youth. This is made in comparison to the youth back then who were forced to learn under Bantu education – an education system created to train black children for manual labour and menial jobs that the government deemed suitable for those of their race. A system that was explicitly intended to inculcate the idea that black people were to accept being subservient to white South Africans.

However, 45 years later, here we are.

Black youth is treated unfairly in the workspaces. What is ironic about this is that we have older generations who are always too quick to remind us of how fortunate we are to be there.

So, what is it that we are celebrating this year?

According to Statistics South Africa, 74.7% of South African youth, those ages between 15 and 24, are unemployed. The unemployment rate for those between 25 and 34 sits at 51.4%.

READ: South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis – a ticking time bomb

But year after year, we are told that our government is creating new opportunities for the youth.

President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced the Presidential Youth Unemployment Intervention just as South Africa entered a national lockdown in 2020.

READ: DBE in talks to continue with the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative

The intention of the initiative was to employ young people at schools at teacher assistants and general assistants. However, until today, some of these young people are still not paid while others received their payments after months of fighting.

We are a youth stressed, abused and not considered by our leaders and this is why I choose to sit out this year’s Youth Day celebrations.

When the young people of 1976 marched on that bloody day, they wanted the youth after them to have fair and equal opportunities. I am certain that they wanted a better life for us. But I often wonder if their dream has been fulfilled. The oppression of the state continues in a different way.

Being part of the youth, we live in constant fear of falling into the trap of nothingness and unemployment. For us, when it comes to the jobs we have, “it is here today and gone tomorrow”.

We have become a youth that is forced to have multiple streams of income in order to survive. In essence, we are a very tired youth, working most days of our lives, for close to nothing.

According to the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), 1 in 4 university students have been diagnosed with depression. The study shows that young people are in a constant battle with life and maybe that is where the term ‘sad generation’ comes from.

Covid-19 has become one of our biggest nightmares, from losing parents and loved ones to losing our jobs which has taken us 10 steps backwards.

We are referred to as the ‘sad generation’ I do not blame whoever came up with that term because most young people are fighting for survival every day and such things cause anxiety and depression.

Not a day goes by without seeing a young person crying for help to find a job or food on Twitter.

Studies show that 2020 saw many people getting retrenched, especially young people.

According to the Youth and Covid-19 survey report – Impact on jobs, education, rights and mental well-being, the Covid-10 pandemic inflicted a heavy toll o young workers, destroying their employment and undermining their career prospects.

“Globally, one in six young people who were employed before the outbreak, stopped working altogether. Two out of five young people reported a reduction in their income while young people in low- and middle-income countries are the most exposed to reductions in working hours and a contraction in their income,” reads the study.

So I ask, yet again, what is it are you asking me to celebrate?

What I would like for you to understand why this “sad generation”” would rather go out and have drinks instead of commemorating the day this Youth Day.

We are not happy.

We are not happy with how millions of rands are looted by government officials, while remain unemployed. We are not happy that we can’t afford to get educated, yet funds are being mismanaged by the governing party.

Statistics show that there are 7.2 million unemployed people in South Africa. Of this number, 52.4% of them have no matric and 37.7% of them have matric.

From the 37.7% who have a matric certificate, 2.1% are unemployed graduates and 7.5% of them have other tertiary qualifications.

Basically, we either are unable to finish matric – mainly a result of social and economic we face at home. For some of us, even when we finish matric, we cannot afford to go to university. Worse still, for those who can afford to go to university, the chances of unemployment re still high.

This is why, every year, we Fees Must Fall protests where protesting students are shot at by the police. Some have died while in protest either via police violence, or mental illness that takes over and leads to suicide.

This is our daily reality. We have become disillusioned and no longer believe in the promises made in 1994.

Aluta continua!

The post Opinion: 2021 Youth Day celebrations? I’ll sit this one out appeared first on Inside Education.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will launch yet another plan to deal with the scourge of youth unemployment. The president on Monday said he will officially launch SAYouth.mobi, the National Pathway Management Network “to expand opportunities and support available to young people”. 

Ramaphosa said the National Pathway Management Network is a partnership between the National Youth Development Agency, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, Department of Science and Innovation, Department of Employment and Labour, Department of Higher Education and Training, Department of Small Business Development and the Youth Employment Service.

“Young people are encouraged to sign up to join the network and access opportunities through SAYouth.mobi,” said the president. 

Adding that he will also provide an update on the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention, announced in his 2020 State of the Nation Address. 

This launch comes at a time when South Africa faces 75% youth unemployment. The country’s statistics agency this month released shocking youth unemployment statistics. 

According to Statistics South Africa’s QLFS, youth between 15-24 sit at an unemployment rate of 74, 7%. Statistician General Risenga Maluleke explained that the 15-24 range is aligned with global definitions of youth. 

The ANC government has come under severe criticism because of its inability to create an environment supportive of employment creation. 

Ann Bernstein, executive director of the Centre for Development and Enterprise said tackling the youth unemployment crisis should focus on accelerating labour-intensive growth has to be the country’s top priority.

Bernstein said policy reform is urgently required in South Africa is going to make a significant dent “in these catastrophic youth unemployment levels”.

“We have to change the rules and regulations that shape the way our economy functions so that it grows much faster and creates jobs far more rapidly than was the case long before Covid-19 struck,” said Bernstein.

“A job creation drive launched by President Cyril Ramaphosa is under way, but is still in its infancy.

“Given the depth of the youth unemployment crisis, there is no plausible strategy for rapidly reducing unemployment in the short term,” said Bernstein,

Adding that despite the president’s seal of approval, the jury is still out on the likely success of this expensive exercise.

We need more bold signals that will encourage the investment and expansion of existing firms if we are to create enough jobs in the future, she said.

In his Monday newsletter, “From the desk of the president” Ramaphosa said he recognised that the struggles of young people in South Africa today “are many”.

READ: Opinion: 2021 Youth Day celebrations? I’ll sit this one out.

He said the greatest struggle young people wage today is against unemployment – something that has worsened under the Covid-19 pandemic.

 “Everything that we do as government contributes towards improving the lives of young people.

“Tackling youth unemployment requires accelerating economic growth, particularly in labour-intensive sectors and building the capability of the state to fulfil its developmental role,” said Ramaphosa.

The president said that government is driving the agenda of youth employment through targeted interventions – including the Presidential Employment Stimulus, which he says, has provided work opportunities and livelihoods to support many young people.

He added that the employment stimulus intervention was built on the understanding that to address the youth employment crisis, innovative thinking and strong partnerships across society are required.

However, for Bernstein, the country needs reforms that will create space for new, more labour-intensive activities to emerge and grow.

READ: Youth unemployment: Is the solution a change in mindset?

She said these reforms include legal exemptions for small and new firms from collective bargaining agreements to which they are not party, and rebalanced collective bargaining structures to provide greater representation of smaller firms’ concerns.

“We also need to start tackling youth unemployment on as many fronts as possible by reforming the education system, improving the way young people are trained for potential jobs, bringing in skills from all over the world to help train South Africans and grow the economy, and removing all structural constraints on growth.

“We need to do whatever is possible to get as many young people as we can into formal jobs,” she said.

The post Ramaphosa has no plausible strategy for reducing youth unemployment appeared first on Inside Education.