South Africa: Government must focus on quality education if it wants to tackle youth unemployment

Government must focus on providing quality education in a safe environment, if it wants to decrease youth unemployment in South Africa, Amnesty International South Africa said on Youth Day.

“This, however, is not possible if the country’s education system is still broken and unequal,” Amnesty International South Africa Executive Director Shenilla Mohamed said. 

“The dire state of education in South Africa has a direct impact on youth unemployment in this country. Quality education is one of the most powerful ways to give our children a bright future. If the government wants the youth to participate in the economy, it needs to ensure that every child, no matter their background, is given quality education.”

Data released by Statistics South Africa, shows for the first quarter of 2022, the unemployment rate was 63.9% for those aged between 15-24 and 42.1% for those aged 25-34 years. 

Children also need to be able to learn in a safe environment. 

Amnesty International South Africa has previously raised the issue of pit toilets, which are still prevalent in hundreds of South African schools.

“​​The Department of Basic Education has been repeatedly moving the deadline when it comes to eradicating pit toilets and ensuring that all schools have proper and safe sanitation facilities, and in doing so continuing to fail learners. The Department now plans to eradicate pit latrine toilets within the 2022/23 financial year and we need to continue putting pressure on them to ensure that this happens. ” Shenilla Mohamed said. 

“These illegal pit toilets are not only violating the right to sanitation which is enshrined in the Constitution, but also the right to health, education, dignity, and privacy, whilst in some cases posing a serious risk to the right to life.

Amnesty International’s 2021/22 Annual Report which looks at the state of the world’s human rights and covers 154 countries, showed that in South Africa old patterns of human rights violations on issues such as the right to quality education, and the rights to health and life continued. 

Last year saw an increase in school dropouts. The National Income Dynamics Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey, a collaboration of over 30 South African researchers from several universities and research organisations, found that up to 500,000 additional children dropped out of school during the pandemic. The drop-out rate reached approximately 750,000 by May 2021, over three times the pre-pandemic number of 230,000.

“South Africa’s education system is unfortunately still plagued by the legacy of apartheid, with children in poorer communities and previously disadvantaged backgrounds still bearing the brunt of the government’s failure to ensure that everyone has access to decent education. The youth cannot continue to be punished for the government’s failures,” Shenilla Mohamed said.

“The youth of 1976 died for decent and equal education.”

Background

Youth Day in South Africa is celebrated on 16 June, to commemorate the historic 1976 Soweto uprising, which saw thousands of black students take to the streets in protest against the apartheid government’s Bantu education system with many of them being killed and injured by the regime.

In 2020 Amnesty International South Africa released a report titled the Broken and Unequal: The State of Education In South Africa which examines access to quality education for children in South Africa’s school system with a particular focus on the provinces of Gauteng, Eastern Cape and Limpopo looking at schools. The report details some of the key challenges that are hindering the ability of South Africa to comply with its right to education obligations under both its own Constitution and international and regional human rights law.