Minister of Education Angie Motshekga. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu
By Mmusi Maimane
Dear Angie Motshekga
It is imperative that we begin 2023 with every unemployed teacher in a teaching post and ready to deliver. We cannot continue to have teachers sitting at home while classes are overcrowded and our economy is growing at a lethargic rate.
Our nation is not failing to grow because of a lack of passion and talent. Our nation is failing to grow because the apartheid education system was not dismantled and replaced with a more inclusive and effective system.
We cannot have thousands of teachers placed on the bench arbitrarily when the squad on the pitch is overwhelmed and under-resourced. Our education crisis requires all hands on deck at all times. It requires star players to be supported and equipped. We are in the economic World Cup, and our competitors are not waiting with their hands tied for us to get our act together.
Our education challenges and our economic challenges are interconnected. When one looks at the employment data, the levels of youth unemployment are indicative of nothing short of a crisis and a proof positive of a failure of national leadership to educate this nation. Citizens who are between the ages of 15-34 are the most affected.
Of the 10.2 million South Africans aged between 15-24, 7 out of 10 are not employed. Of the 10.4 million South Africans who are aged between 25-34, 1 out of 2 are not employed.
One might wonder if the unemployment numbers are merely higher for young people because they are still pursuing education, but a close inspection reveals a worrying issue: the numbers are high even when you factor in those who are still in school, university or college. As outlined by Statistics South Africa, 3.5 million (34,5%) out of 10.2 million young people aged 15-24 years were not in employment, education or training (NEET). When expanded to the 15-34 age range, the percentage of young persons aged 15-34 years, not in employment, education, or training, was eye-wateringly high at 44.0% in the third quarter of 2022.
In the most productive years of their lives, instead of being economic contributors and producers, most South Africans are excluded from the game. This is a direct result of the education system failing.
Long-term employment is a very valuable indicator and looks at those who have not had a job for one year or longer. In the last 10 years, that number has increased from 3.3 million to 5.9 million South Africans. Most of those who are unemployed have been so for longer than a year. Over the last decade, the proportion of those in long-term unemployment increased from 67.3% to 77.0%. When one takes the long view, it is clear that unemployment has become a bigger problem.
Minister, you came into office in 2009, you are one of the last standing ministers from the Zuma era. While you were minister, millions of students dropped out of school.
These South Africans did not disappear. They joined the ranks of the unemployed and unemployable. They were not provided with the skills they needed to access the workplace. Minister, you have failed to provide the skills that pay the bills to our beautiful nation of dreamers. Our skills rankings are the lowest in the G20 countries, and this has the impact of limiting our attractiveness to the global investors and global businesses in high technology industries.
We are ranked 109 out of 141 in teacher ratios, 119 out of 141 in quality of vocational training, 107 out of 141 in skills of the future workforce and 126 out of 141 in digital skills of the population. These are scary numbers when one considers that we are in the moment in history where machine learning is accelerating, where companies are producing digital technological environments such as the metaverse. Tech is reshaping the world, and the winners and losers will be those who are able to learn how to use it and master it. We cannot afford to be a low skills nation at this moment in history, factories are closing, and retail is going online. We must keep up.
The provinces worst affected by unemployment are also the provinces worst affected by drop-outs from the schooling system. This is beyond correlation: it is a clear causal relationship. The overall unemployment levels in the Eastern Cape were 51.8%, and they were at 47.5% in Limpopo, significantly higher than the average.
The dropout rates in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo were 62% and 55%, respectively.
When we fail to provide opportunities to young people especially in rural areas, they are trapped with no economic opportunities. This is why it is imperative to make sure that there are no teacher shortages in rural South Africa and to create better incentives for teachers to go into those areas.
Unemployed educators will be marching to the department of education. It is my hope that you have the tenacity of character to be able to listen to them and to resolve their issues. Many have been sitting at home waiting for the call from the department, but it has never come. There must be no teacher unemployed in South Africa. After all, education should be our number one priority.
* Mmusi Maimane is the leader of Build One South Africa.