JAMES HOLLY JR.

Black people make up just 9% of the STEM workforce. As a scholar who studies how STEM educators can more effectively reach Black students, I want to help all people develop an understanding of how anti-Black racism is a significant barrier for Black students learning STEM.

Many scholars have argued that our current ways of teaching STEM are bad for everyone because only the experiences and contributions of white people are discussed, but the negative effects are greater for Black people. Teachers frequently question the intellectual ability of Black students and prevent them from using their cultural worldviews, spirituality and language in the STEM learning setting.

Still, Black people continue to boost STEM knowledge across the world. It is time to generate new teaching practices in STEM that affirm Black students in a way that connects with their lives.

1. Talk about Black excellence

The projection of ideas about who can who can pick up STEM concepts is important. Research has shown that many people think of engineers as white men; therefore, seeing Black STEM professionals in person or via media representation can build inspiration among Black youths.

Although Black representation is essential, it alone won’t address the barriers Black students face. These barriers include racial stereotyping, stressful academic culture and other social and cultural factors. Some of these issues are not unique to Black people, but together they can create a particularly harmful experience for Black students. When teachers celebrate the successes of Black people in STEM, they can also discuss the resources and opportunities these individuals had or did not have while navigating racism.

Many Black people throughout history have achieved advanced STEM knowledge. Dr. Patricia Bath, an ophthalmologist who developed laser technology used in treating cataracts, and Steven Townsend, who has advanced awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding, are just two examples. But Black contributions to STEM predate American enslavement. Recalling this history normalizes Black success across STEM disciplines.

Educators must be mindful of how they tell Black success stories in STEM. When educators reduce examples of Black excellence to just a few people, it perpetuates the myth of Black exceptionalism, the idea that Black people who are capable of success are rare. Individual success stories can also portray these people as being successful without assistance or serve as limited representations. Instead, teachers can share varied examples of successful Black scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians, including local residents and family members of their students.

2. Emphasize social skills

Although STEM professions require both social and technical knowledge, technical skills are typically valued more than social skills.

Math and science instruction often encourage competition and rigor, which constrains students’ ability to value differences in experience, style and problem-solving approaches. This also limits students’ ability to see how math and science knowledge can solve social problems. Furthermore, traditional math and science teaching has punished Black students for how they speak and live. This happens when teachers focus more on using scientific language than on displaying scientific understanding. Therefore, many Black students become disengaged and lose interest.

STEM education in its current form pushes Black students away instead of addressing the racial and socioeconomic problems within STEM classrooms and broader society.

Black youths tend to have a strong sense of social realities and a “soulfulness” that causes them to focus more on people than objects. STEM educators can train Black youths to utilize their emotional strengths in designing problem-solving technologies that are both effective and humane. For example, Black-centered design, a race-conscious application of human-centered design, allows Black people to use their cultural knowledge to provide scientific solutions to problems in their community. However teachers choose to do it, Black identity and culture should be seen as an asset to STEM education and careers.

3. Teach with sociopolitical awareness

An abundance of resources can help teachers develop curriculum that highlights the ways culture influences how we learn and practice STEM. One example is The Woke STEM Teacher, a website where educators can get tools to include social justice topics in their STEM curriculum.

Teachers can design or use enjoyable exercises that prompt students to use STEM knowledge to solve problems relevant to their lives outside of the classroom. This allows opportunities for students’ communities to be used as spaces for STEM learning.

Also, the creativity of Black students may look different from that of other students, so it is important to develop a supportive approach. Educators have used hip-hop, cosmetology, and double-Dutch to demonstrate Black intelligence in STEM.

I believe these simple steps are powerful ways to shift STEM education toward better appreciating and elevating the knowledge and contributions of Black people in STEM.

The post 3 ways schools can improve STEM learning for Black students appeared first on Inside Education.

NALEDI SHOTA|

The Department of Basic Education is this week expected to announce a date on when teachers will be vaccinated. 

Spokesperson for the department, Elijah Mhlanga, told Inside Education on Monday that the department has been in meetings with the Department of Health and talks are at an advanced stage regarding the vaccination of teachers.

“There is progress. We met with health today and an announcement is going to be made this week,” said Mhlanga.

In a statement on Monday pharmaceutical company Aspen, said it was disappointed that specific batches of the Johnson&Johnson vaccine manufactured at its plant in Gqeberha had to be destroyed. 

This comes after the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Friday that some batches of the Johnson and Johnson vaccines produced at the Emergent BioSolutions Plant in Baltimore in America were contaminated.

“[This is] due to the ‘Good Manufacturing Practice’ risk of isolated material in the drug substance supplied to Aspen by Johnson & Johnson from their contract manufacturing partner in the USA, Emergent. The batches manufactured had been retained in storage awaiting the outcome of the US FDA [Food and Drug Administration] assessment of Emergent.

“This is not only a setback to both the Aspen and Johnson & Johnson teams who have worked tirelessly to ensure the manufacture of these batches, but more importantly, has the potential to negatively impact the vaccine rollout across South Africa and Africa,” reads the statement. 

However, the company further said that within days Aspen would provide 300 000 doses of the vaccine for South African teachers. These are not impacted by the contamination. 

Mhlanga also told Inside Education that the sector “will more likely benefit from the 300 000 vaccines cleared for use in South Africa”.

The vaccination will happen as primary schools and special education needs schools are expected to receive back all learners on 26 July. There is currently a rotation system in place. 

However, on Thursday Julius Malema, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) president called for schools to be closed with “immediate effect”. Malema said this needed to happen because more and more learners are testing positive for the virus. He said the party would give Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, seven days to respond to their call or the party would shut down schools. 

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

Mhlanga said the EFF had written to Motshekga calling for schools to be closed and had asked her to respond to the party by Thursday. He said the department would respond to the party by its deadline. 

In the past week, the Northern Cape department of education said it had recorded 103 positive cases and 69 of these were from learners, while the Gauteng department said in the past week 1977 learners tested positive in the last week.

Two weeks ago, Inside Education reported on a letter that had been written by the Head of Health in KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Sandile Tshabalala, addressed to the Head of Education Enock Nzama about the vaccination of educators. Tshabalala said the national department of education has confirmed that the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines would be made available in the next week and that “most of which should be used for educators”.

“The target group is basic education (all staff members of primary and secondary schools). It is expected that the dedicated vaccination sites for educators will be ready by Wednesday, 9th June 2021, and the vaccination period will be for two weeks,” read the letter.

READ: Teachers set to be vaccinated in the next week

Teacher unions also told Inside Education, two weeks ago, that they had written to the national departments of health and education asking that teachers be prioritised for vaccination this month. 

There are about 400 000 teachers in the system. 

READ: Teachers over 40 to be vaccinated from Wednesday

The post Announcement on teacher vaccination to be made this week appeared first on Inside Education.

BENSON NTLEMO|

It was back in 2011, when learners at PP Hlungwani Secondary School in Malamulele, Limpopo together with their parents, boycotted classes demanding the return of their school principal, Richard Khosa.

That year, the rural school matric results had plummeted to 57, 3% from previous years highs of over a 90% matric pass rate.

Learners and parents at the school said Khosa had the winning formulae to return the school’s pass rate to its former glory.

They were right.

Upon Khosa’s return, PP Hlungwani Secondary School has returned to producing one of the best matric results in the province.

In the 2020 Matric exams, the quintile 1 school, which caters for the poorest 20% of learners, achieved a matric pass rate of 92,7%.

This happened despite the lack of resources available at the school, and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic that placed even more pressure on learning and education. The school – situated in Green Farm village about 15km outside Malamulele – still managed to produce one of the country’s best learners, 18-year-old Pearl Khosa (no relation) who represented the school at the Top Matric Achievers National Awards.

Pearl achieved six distinctions for the 2020 Matric year. It was reported that she also attained 300 out of 300 marks in Physical Science, a subject that Khosa himself teaches.

READ: Matric Results: MTN Awards SA’s Top 183 Matriculants With Laptops, Computers

In 2018, the school produced a top learner, Nwayitelo Masia, also attained full marks for Physical Science as well as 7 distinctions. Nwayitelo represented the school at the provincial awards ceremony.

The school, being a government quintile 1 school lacks basic necessities. The school does not have an adequate number of classrooms, a science laboratory, a school hall, an admin block and decent ablution facilities.

When asked about the secret of the success of the school that he leads, Khosa said: “It is the commitment of the school management team lead by the school principal. This trickles down to other educators.

“School management must be exemplary. At my school, the SMT [science, mathematics and technology education] is supported by other stakeholders such as the school management body, parental involvement and traditional leadership,” said the principal.

Adding that one must not expect the support from other stakeholders for nothing, “you must show commitment and their support will follow”.

Khosa joined PP Hlungwani Secondary School in 2003 after then school principal, Mackson Masangu, resigned to join the Thulamela Local Municipality as a senior manager.

Although his position was as a deputy principal, he was soon promoted to acting principal.

However, in 2006, the Department of Basic Education seconded him to be the acting principal of a new school, Jilongo Secondary School in Jilongo Village also under the Madonsi Traditional Council.

It was during this time that matric results at PP Hlungwani Secondary School saw a sharp decline, which led parents and pupils to go on massive protest demanding the return of their principal.

Jilongo Secondary School pupils and their parents also boycotted classes demanding that Khosa continue as principal. The tug of war would see Khosa sent back to PP Hlungwani where, many said he was never meant to leave. Khosa was replaced by Dan Khanyi who later left Jilongo to join the Collins Chabane Local Municipality as the manager in the mayor’s office.

READ: #MatricResults: Son of a street hawker becomes a top achiever

But Khosa was almost lost to teaching.

As a young man who had just completed his then Form Five examinations at Mtititi Secondary School, Khosa was trained by Telkom for three years. He later became a qualified technician with a diploma in telecommunications.

But after working for three years, he saved enough money to finance his passion to be a teacher.

Khosa attended Tivumbeni College of Education where after three years, he acquired a teacher’s diploma and came back to teach at his alma mater, Mtititi Secondary School.

From there he was promoted to deputy principal at Shitlhangoma Secondary School before his transfer to PP Hlungwani.

PP Hlungwani presently has 1 446 leaners and 43 educators.

The principal’s small office has been converted into a classroom. On the classroom walls, there are many accolades including certificates and trophies.

“We receive them all the time,” said Khosa. “They are from the district, region and province. Some are from the [teachers’ union] Sadtu. They show that the different stakeholders appreciate what we are doing,” he said.

In Khosa’s first year back at PP Hlungwani in 2012, the matric pass rate returned to over 90%.

Because of his track record, many schools are utilising his services.

He recently addressed a one-day workshop on Curriculum Management organised by two schools at Nkatini Secondaru High and Matimba Secondary at Shingwedzi Camp in the Kruger National Park. He was also invited to address a similar workshop organised by Nwanati Secondary School in Makuleke in Malamulele held in Swadini Aventura Inn outside Hoedspruit in Mpumalanga.

Khosa told Inside Education that even with the lack of resources, education must always take place.

 “We do not teach subjects, but we teach children. Once we have children, we must make sure they are taught,” said the principal.

READ: Man who went from gardener to lecturer will do PhD in England

The post PROFILE: “We do not teach subjects, we teach children” – Khosa appeared first on Inside Education.

STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education is increasingly recognised as a driver of economic performance, which is essential in helping developing countries compete in the global market, create jobs and create lives and livelihoods.

This is according to University of Cape Town (UCT) Chancellor Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe who gave the keynote address during Harvard University Center for African Studies’ (CAS) inaugural “Partnerships in STEM Innovation and Future Africa” virtual research symposium this month.

Moloi-Motsepe said the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is in full swing, and that it is crucial for Africa to claim its place as not only an equal partner and contributor, but also as a leader in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as the arts.

“There are many young people in Africa are slipping through the cracks of education systems that are simply not up to scratch,” said Moloi-Motsepe.

The UCT chancellor said almost 60% of Africa’s youth between the ages of 15 and 17 are not enrolled in school, while less than 4% of people across Africa have a university degree.

“Furthermore, among currently enrolled students, less than 25% are pursuing STEM qualifications. The African Union estimates that 70 000 skilled professionals emigrate from Africa every year to pursue economic opportunities in Europe and America,” she said.

“Increased promotion of STEM and the available opportunities in the labour market can create necessary working opportunities that can fulfil the aspiration of Africa’s growing population,” said Moloi-Motsepe.

Adding that in response to this crisis, the African Union (AU) has prioritised education, particularly education underpinned by science, technology and innovation in its Agenda 2063. 

Moloi-Motsepe said the AU aspires that by 2063 Africa will be a continent of well-educated and skilled citizens.

“In this knowledgeable society, it will be the norm that no child misses school due to poverty,” she said.

READ: 4IR: A Vision For The Future Of Education In Africa

According to the AU, union member states spend at least 1% of their gross domestic product on research and development that will enhance STEM innovation.

The World Bank stated that the economic and social prosperity of countries depends on the state of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This is why, according to research, these fields of research can provide for a deeper understanding of problems in the African context and an opportunity for new discoveries by researchers to solve challenges and advance future development.

Moloi-Motsepe also spoke about the importance of tapping into the knowledge already available on the continent. She said in order to promote much-needed collaboration and knowledge-sharing to benefit Africa and other developing nations, it is important for Africa to collaborate and work in partnership with leading global innovators to reduce its reliance on imported innovation.

Moloi-Motsepe also said that the arts and humanities are as important to development and innovation as the STEM fields. Adding that to equip Africa’s youth with skills that suit the future of work and skills, the interaction between STEM subjects and the humanities needs to be recognised as critical for navigating the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“We need to break down the silos between these academic fields. The interaction between STEM subjects and the humanities needs to be recognised as critical for navigating the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” she said.

READ: Presidential Commission On 4IR Presents Draft Diagnostic Report To Ramaphosa

The post STEM and art education is central to Africa’s development and innovation appeared first on Inside Education.

Athletes in preparation for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics Games in Japan are already receiving their Covid-19 jabs.

The University of Johannesburg (UJ) shotput champion, Jason van Rooyen, recently received his jab in preparation of the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Van Rooyen is one of the UJ athletes selected to represent South Africa in shotput.

READ: ‘Siyaya eJapan, Tokyo here we come,’ say UJ sportsmen, women in SA squad

The shotput star said he was vaccinated at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.

“I received the booking via South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) because they are arranging vaccinations for all the athletes heading to Japan.

“These days, a vaccine is just like a passport. It is important that we keep ourselves and the rest of the world safe by vaccinating,” said van Rooyen.

Van Rooyen said some of the side effects he has felt since getting the jab include headaches.

The young athlete said he has experienced really bad headaches and that he has been feeling very tired.

“But I think that is the normal thing that happens when a vaccine is injected into the body,” he said.

Athletes around the world are getting vaccinated to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Other countries such as Australia, have been inoculating athletes heading to the big games since April this year.

In South Africa, the vaccination of athletes only started late May at various vaccination sites throughout the country.

According to the Department of Health, its medical team has worked very close with SASCOC staff to contact the athletes and arrange vaccination dates and times to ensure an efficient and smooth vaccination process before July 2021.

Van Rooyen said he is eyeing a top 10 ranking in the world.

The start athlete gave an impressive performance in the 2021 USSA Championships in mid-May when UJ held the competition at the Athletics Stadium.

In the competition, van Rooyen equalled the South African record of 20.40m throw in shotput.

He said he has set his sights on the podium and hopes to bring home a medal.

“I want to be in the final at the Olympic Games. It would be really great to stand on the Olympics podium as evidence of my hard work here at home,” he said.

READ: PROFILE: Africa’s current discus champion to compete in Tokyo Paralympic Games

The post Student athletes vaccinated ahead of the Tokyo Olympics appeared first on Inside Education.

NYAKALLO TEFU|

Teacher unions continue to anxiously wait for feedback from the department of health and the department of basic education on when the vaccination of educators will commence.

The added anxiety comes after the vaccination of educators was 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.

“We are hoping to hear from the department today, we have heard over the weekend about the contaminated vaccines being destroyed,” said spokesperson of the National Professional Teachers Organization of South Africa (Naptosa), Basil Manuel.

According to pharmaceutical company Aspen, Johnson & Johnson will provide 300 000 doses of the vaccine for South African teachers within days.

Manuel said Naptosa has heard of the 300 000 unaffected vaccines will arrive in South Africa soon, “however, we don’t know if they have been organised to vaccinate educators, so we wait to hear from the department of health and the department of basic education”.

Since April, teacher unions across the country have been calling for the vaccination of teachers who, despite learners coming in on a rotational basis, have been going to school on a daily.

READ: SADTU calls for vaccination of teachers

Last Monday, Inside Education reported that teacher unions confirmed that educators, cleaners and other support staff at public schools in South Africa will be vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus starting 9 June 2021.

Unions said at least 500,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines have been secured for the education sector.

“We have always called for government to use vaccines which have a record of effectiveness in their use. The J&J vaccines together with the other ones our government chose – do not have such,” said Education Union of South Africa’s Kabelo Mahlobongwane.

Mahlobongwane said they are not shocked at the news that vaccines have been destroyed because they were contaminated.

“We actually suspect that the quantity we are being told of never even existed before. These were just numbers that were announced to give the country false hope,” said Mahlobongwane.

READ: Teacher unions push to have teachers vaccinated in June

The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu)’s Mugwena Maluleke said the decision by both departments was based on findings by the FDA.

“We still expect that teachers will still be prioritised, in terms of the 300 000 vaccines that have been approved, teachers will be first in line to receive,” said Maluleke.

The union leaders told Inside Education that both the department of basic education and department of health have not communicated with them on the progress of vaccines thus far. However, they remain hopeful that educators will get vaccinated.

Unions have also called for the vaccination of educators to be completed before learners return to school on a full-time basis from 26 July 2021.

“The vaccination of educators should be given the urgency it deserves. Private institutions have already started with taking necessary steps, whereas our public education management is still sleeping,” said Mahlobongwane.

READ: Union concerned about DBE’s ability to manage full-time return to primary schools

South Africa and other African countries have been in a constant battle of getting access to Covid-19 vaccines since the beginning of the pandemic. African countries continue look for solutions in order to ensure that even middle- and low-income countries can afford to vaccinate their populations.

On Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the Group of Seven (G7) Summit in the United Kingdom, where he pleaded with rich countries to sign the Agreement of Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver as the world fights the Covid-19 pandemic.

One of the challenges faced by African states is the negative impact that intellectual property (IP) barriers have had in the past. Leaders of these countries have asked developed nations to allow African countries to scale up the manufacturing and supply of lifesaving Covid-19 medical tools across the world.

According to the organisation Doctors without Borders, the World Trade Organization (WTO) can and should invoke a waiver of certain IP rights on these Covid-19 technologies under WTO rules. The not-for-profit organisation argues that the pandemic is an exceptional global crisis and thus, for humanitarian issues, the need to make profits should be set aside.

South Africa and India also submitted a landmark proposal earlier this year to the WTO requesting that WTO members waive four categories of IP rights including copyright, industrial designs, patents and undisclosed information under the TRIPS until the majority of the world population receives effective vaccines and develops immunity to Covid-19.

Ramaphosa said the proposed TRIPS waiver is a temporary, targeted and proportional response, which recognises the unprecedented nature of the pandemic.

He said the TRIPS waiver is to assist countries especially middle and low-income nations to be able to access vaccines.

“We call on G7 members to support the waiver and engage in negotiations that will result in a balanced outcome that massively and rapidly expands production in Africa and across the world,” said Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa said negotiations must be concluded soon because the cost of Covid-19 infections is measured in people’s lives.

The post Unions wait in bated breath for details on the vaccination of educators appeared first on Inside Education.

The University of Cape Town (UCT), the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) and the University of Johannesburg (UJ) have been ranked the three top universities in the continent with Stellenbosch University, University of Pretoria and Rhodes University holding the fifth, seventh and 10th places respectively.

This is according to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2022 released his month. For the 2022 academic year, the company ranked 1 300 institutions around the world, including nine from South Africa.

The 2022 QS rankings show that UCT dropped six places globally to 226th compared with the previous year’s rankings, while UJ climbed five places from last year’s global ranking position. The QS rankings show that Wits fell 21 places from the previous year rankings.

UJ Vice-Chancellor Professor Tshilidzi Marwala said not only has UJ climbed five places from last year’s global ranking position, but his university is the only university in South Africa that moved up in these rankings.

“UJ is now ranked at third position in South Africa and climbed from fourth to third place in Africa, the university has also retained its position among the Top 500 [ranked 434] universities in the world,” said Marwala.

UCT Vice-Chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng said despite UCT dropping six places compared to last year, the university remains the best university in Africa.

“This position puts UCT among the top 18% of universities worldwide and is tied with Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in Germany, the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom and the University of Virginia in the United States,” said Phakeng.

Adding that the academic reputation indicator remains UCT’s strongest performer.

“This is the indicator that contributes the most (40%) to an institution’s overall score,” she said.

READ: SA universities fall in global rankings

The QS World University Rankings are based on six performance indicators, ranging from global academic and employer reputation, research output and quality, internationalisation, as well as teaching and learning.

The organisation said academic reputation remains the highest weighting of any metric. It collates the expert opinions of over 130 000 individuals in the higher education space regarding teaching and research quality at the world’s institutions, said the organisation.

Marwala said UJ’s high overall score was achieved by its increased cohort of international staff and students, which is well above the global average and leading nationally.

He added that the university also achieved improvements in the scores for the research and academic reputation indicators, climbing 34 places from 623 to 589 in the world for the “Citations per Faculty” category.

“The latest global rankings reaffirm the fact that our academic programmes remain strong and relevant, especially when one considers that the pool of competing universities in this global ranking system has increased, ranking 1300 universities instead of the usual 1000 universities as in previous editions,” said Marwala.

He added that these latest rankings demonstrate UJ’s resilience as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) thought leader in Africa, and how the university has had to be agile in adapting to the ever-changing landscape.

“This was also because in embracing technological advancements, our students have been at the centre of this innovative learning approach,” said Marwala.

READ: Prof Tshilidzi Marwala on jobs of the future, being number one and the Auckland Park education precinct

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Ann Bernstein

“If you can’t solve the problem of getting young people into work, it may not matter what other problems you do solve.”

Paul Romer, Nobel economics laureate

The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) statistics confirm a shocking reality: three out of every four South Africans (74.7%) between the ages of 15 and 24 who want a job cannot find one. For those between the ages of 25 and 34, things are somewhat better, yet still the worst they have ever been: more than half (51.4%) of them are unemployed.

Tackling this crisis by accelerating labour-intensive growth has to be the country’s top priority.

Unless young people become part of the employed workforce in much larger numbers soon, political leaders will become increasingly dysfunctional, human potential will be wasted and hopes of creating a stabler, more inclusive and prosperous country will remain mere pipe dreams.

South Africa’s expanded unemployment rate is 43.2%, the highest it has been since the start of the QLFS in 2008. The data unequivocally reveal that the labour market remains especially inaccessible to young workers. The overall youth unemployment rate sits at 57.5%. The 6.8 million young people unable to find jobs constitute the majority (59.2%) of the unemployed.

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

The Covid-19 pandemic has turned what was already a crisis into a catastrophe. The severe 7% GDP contraction suffered last year prompted a huge increase in the number of jobless young people. The youth unemployment rate rose by more than five percentage points as a result of the pandemic, while nearly 1 million fewer young people are in employment now. On average, 444 young people have joined the unemployment queues every day since the start of the pandemic.

Too many young people are disconnected from economic opportunities – and they feel this exclusion in deeply personal and damaging ways.

As one young person put it: “You feel as if you’re useless. You don’t belong to earth; you aren’t even a human being.”Better learning outcomes are often seen as the best way of improving young people’s employment prospects. It is true that upward social mobility is strongly correlated with education levels in South Africa

Being jobless also affects a person’s future employability. Employment is a form of education and training, providing workers with knowledge, skills, discipline, networks and other capabilities that cannot be gained through formal educational instruction. This is what US economist Paul Romer means when he refers to “work as school”, and it is the reason employers often prefer people with work experience over those who have none.

The long-term unemployed, by contrast, become increasingly ill-suited to the needs of the economy – their training becomes less relevant, their skills deteriorate and their ability to signal their workplace readiness lessens. They are therefore doubly disadvantaged in a country where too few jobs are being created.

Better learning outcomes are often seen as the best way of improving young people’s employment prospects. It is true that upward social mobility is strongly correlated with education levels in South Africa. However, the country’s educational attainments remain extremely low: only 37% of pupils who start Grade 1 together will pass matric; 14% will obtain university-entrance exemption; and only 4% of the original group will receive a tertiary qualification within six years of leaving school. This is a devastating underperformance for an education system.

The situation is worst for those who are not in employment, education or training (NEET). Altogether, 9 million (43.6%) young South Africans are classified as NEETs. These are people who are excluded from the economy and are struggling to access it.

Even among the working youth, more than a quarter (27.6%, or 1.4 million) are informally employed. This points to further disadvantages experienced by the youngest segments of the workforce. A formal job is much more likely to be a sustained route out of poverty than an informal job, given the importance of on-the-job training for future employability.

Taken together, these numbers reflect a disturbing truth: this is no country for young people.

As politicians commemorate Youth Day on Wednesday, it is important to note the policy choices they have made that have created a catastrophic situation facing the vast majority of young South Africans. Our current approach to economic growth and jobs, as well as education, is failing young people. As a matter of urgency, we need to rethink our approach to the labour market, especially in regard to absorbing unskilled young jobseekers into formal positions.

Towards a bigger, bolder reform approach

Policy reform is urgently required. If we are 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.

Given the depth of the youth unemployment crisis, there is no plausible strategy for rapidly reducing unemployment in the short term. A job creation drive launched by President Cyril Ramaphosa is under way, but is still in its infancy.

The biggest component of this state-driven initiative consists of placing young people in schools for a few months. 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

However, what must be grasped is that the scale of any public employment drive will be too small to make more than a shallow dent in the massive challenge we confront. Unless these education opportunities provide useful work experiences and on-the-job training, they will fail to make much difference to the long-term prospects of the young people who participate in them.

There is, however, considerable scope for reforms that would improve the performance of the economy and deepen the inclusiveness of growth by increasing employment.

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. The bottom line is that firms need to be incentivised to hire young, unskilled workers instead of being encouraged to switch to mechanisation and automation.

We need reforms that will create space for new, more labour-intensive activities to emerge and grow, including legal exemptions for small and new firms from collective bargaining agreements to which they are not party, as well as rebalanced collective bargaining structures to provide greater representation of smaller firms’ concerns.

We should expand and extend the employment tax incentive to a wider range of workers and for a longer period, and introduce modest reforms to hiring and firing. Making it easier and less risky for firms to terminate new employees during their probationary periods, for example, would help remove risk from the employment decision, especially with regard to new, inexperienced young workers.

Given that these changes represent a significant policy shift and will most likely face considerable antagonism in the governing party alliance, the Centre for Development and Enterprise has proposed an experimental special economic zone designed for labour-intensive manufacturing in which labour market rules would be somewhat liberalised to test the proposition that jobs would be created under those conditions.

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.

South Africa has a growing youth population. This should be a resource we can tap to generate growth and contribute to development – what economists call a “demographic dividend”.

If we do not alter the course of our economy, however, we will reap a demographic disaster instead.

Ann Bernstein is the executive director of the Centre for Development and Enterprise

The post Youth unemployment: A catastrophe appeared first on Inside Education.

NYAKALLO TEFU|

The Gauteng Department of education has raised concerns about the number of Covid-19 cases at schools in the province.

In the past week, the provincial department reported that over 1 000 school children tested positive for the coronavirus.

“1227 learners and 802 teachers have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the number of schools with positive cases to 1637,” said the provincial department’s spokesperson Steve Mabona.

Reports show that the rise in cases at schools come as the country enters the third wave of Covid-19 infections with the number of cases recorded in the past 24 hours sitting at 8881.

“We are concerned by the number of cases at schools. We are working closely with the Department of Health and every time there is a case the department will visit the school to see how to deal with the issue,” said Mabona.

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

Reports show that Krugersdorp High School was shut down on Thursday to reopen on Monday, 14 June. The decision came after 9 learners tested positive for the Covid-19 virus..

Ivan Bailey, the school principal, said all those learners who tested positive immediately went into isolation.

“We will continue to manage all cases following the required protocols and procedures,” said the school principal.

He added that four staff members also tested positive for the virus and that they were already in isolation.

“The staff are also apprehensive as many of them have elderly or co-morbid family members who live with them,” said Bailey.

Learners are set to return to school on 14 June 2021.

READ: The Northern Cape sees sharp increases in Covid-19 infections in schools

The post GDE concerned about the rising number of Covid-19 cases at schools in the province appeared first on Inside Education.

NALEDI SHOTA|

The Nelson Mandela University has become the second institution this week to suspend contact classes after there was a spike of positive Covid-19 cases at its Gqeberha campuses. 

In a communique to staff and students this week, the university said the call to temporarily halt face-to-face classes was after ten positive cases were recorded in one day and a further six overnight.

The university said all the positive cases are students. 

“All these students are in quarantine, and since two are also from the same class, which had held mask-to-mask activities, their entire class has also been placed under quarantine.

“For the students’ own safety and that of others, they will isolate themselves in their rooms for ten days, monitoring themselves for symptoms. Such is the complicated nature of the virus, however, some of the students who recently tested positive for Covid-19 were, and are, asymptomatic. In other words, they have none of the usual Covid-19 symptoms,” reads the communique. 

The university said following the spike it would reduce large gatherings on campus, would improve entrance screening and other measures in an effort to minimise the spread of the virus at the institution. 

“Various buildings may also be temporarily closed to counter the possibility of large gatherings of people,”  reads the communique. 

The university further said that all planned face-to-face assessments for this week will move online or will be deferred until it is safe to return to contact classes. 

On Tuesday Inside Education also reported that the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) had suspended contact classes after a student died from Covid-19 related illnesses last week. 

READ: TUT suspends all contact classes

The university’s spokesperson, Phaphama Tshisikhawe, said TUT did not know when it would resume contact classes. 

“This will be determined by the cases of the coronavirus in the country. It is not only because of the Covid-19 related death that we are experiencing in the university, it is mostly because the infections that are increasing,” said Tshisikhawe at the time. 

Debbie Derry, NMU Deputy Director said the university not only faces the third wave of infections but also faces the “worst water crisis in living history” and the constant threat of load shedding.

The post Nelson Mandela University suspends contact classes following a spike in Covid cases appeared first on Inside Education.