Window of Opportunity? Are we missing a rare opportunity to tackle the dual crises of youth unemployment?

?(This opinion piece was published in the Business Day Youth Supplement on 16 June 2022)

By Nwabisa Makaluza and Sipumelele Lucwaba

The pandemic has taken much from us with the youth being one of the hardest hit groups. The unemployment rate for most of this period has been around 64% for youth between the ages of 18-24 with an additional 10% who have been discouraged from searching for employment. All of this while the cost of living has been steadily increasing.

The Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI) was launched as a response to the youth’s ongoing battle with socio-economic factors that were exacerbated by the pandemic. Although the PYEI was formed as a response to the pandemic related socio-economic losses, an intervention of this kind was long overdue.

The largest portion of the stimulus package (~R7bn) was the Basic Education Employment Initiative which was rolled out by the Department of Basic Education (DBE). Here, more than 300 thousand job opportunities were distributed across schools nationwide for the period between December 2020 - April 2021 (Phase 1) and another cohort of 300 thousand job opportunities were created between October 2021 - February 2022 (Phase 2). The rapid rollout of the initiative meant that the administrators of the programme had to build the proverbial aeroplane while flying it. Naturally, some teething issues would arise. Late payments of youth, confusion amongst schools on the roles of the Educator Assistants and General School Assistants, were all symptoms of lack of preparedness.

?Moreover, although the initiative was conceptualised for youth to gain meaningful employment experience, the timing of the implementation (mostly during school holidays) meant that the initiative could do little more than serve as a grant towards its recipients. Though much needed, this would serve only to short-change the schools within which they were placed, and most importantly, the youth themselves.

African youth have always been at the forefront of radical change. Historically, young people were the pioneers of political emancipation. In recent times, young people have taken up leadership roles in, not only a vast array of social justice issues, but also in various industries and sectors. In this instance, the youth – through the PYEI-BEEI – have the potential to serve as an important catalyst for change in the Basic Education sector.

Funda Wande believes that it is possible to harness the passion and existing skills of young people to move towards a system that provides learners with a better chance of accessing quality education. Lessons from the Funda Wande Teaching Assistant Intervention in Limpopo, which achieved an additional 110% of a year of learning, are beginning to provide us a clearer understanding of the critical levers for hiring youth to improve early learning outcomes. These are: (1) the rigorous recruitment and selection of youth, (2) the provision of high-quality learner and teacher support material, (3) training that is both comprehensive and aligned to the materials provided, and (4) continuous monitoring and support.

Realistically, the adoption of these components takes time and the size of impact at scale is likely to be closer to the national early literacy trend of 12.5% - 20% of a year of learning. However, if done correctly, this labour-intensive intervention will not only assist with the professional development of youth but can also form a part of an intentional Covid learning losses recovery programme.

Given projected teacher retirements and subsequent shortages in the next 10 years, the potential for positive impact of youth in the sector is even more compelling and urgent than ever before. How the DBE responds to their current obstacles and takes advantage of the opportunities, will test the true potential of the programme. Encouragingly, Phase 3 of the PYEI extended the employment of 270 thousand youth that were hired in Phase 2 until Oct 2022. This time, the DBE has an opportunity to tackle the dual crisis of youth unemployment and low learning outcomes.?