JOBS CRISIS OP-ED: Bring back the Basic Education Employment Initiative — SA youth need it urgently

While South Africa’s economy continues to shed jobs, what is our national strategy to support young people? The Basic Education Employment Initiative has been providing opportunities against a backdrop of poor market performance – and it needs to be brought back.

South Africa’s unemployment stats are never just numbers; they reflect the depth of the experiences of millions of people waking up each morning wanting to contribute but finding no door open to them.

The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey reminded us that young people bear the brunt of unemployment, with expanded unemployment rising to 47.4%. But it also showed us that formal sector employment is shrinking, with 41,000 jobs lost in just three months – employment decreases were mainly in the community and social services, a sector that employs mostly young people.

While deeply concerning, these numbers alone don’t communicate the impact of unemployment on young people’s confidence, identity and sense of direction. At the Masinyusane Development Organisation we see first-hand the impact of not being able to find opportunities.

During the last round of the Basic Education Employment Initiative, Masinyusane trained more than 400 young people to implement Zazi iZandi , a mother-tongue, play-based small group intervention that helps pupils reach the Grade 1 benchmark for reading. In turn, the education assistants supported children learning to read, assisted teachers meaningfully and became part of a broader effort to improve foundation phase learning outcomes.

What often goes unnoticed is that these work opportunities provide way more than economic respite; they are a transformative experience for the young people, pupils and their households and broader communities.

Since 2020, the Basic Education Employment Initiative has created more than one million opportunities, many in areas with poor economic activity . More applicants and assistants were female and from rural and poor areas, giving them income, experience and purpose, and strengthened schools that are often expected to do too much with too little.

It showed important social returns, with 96% of school management team members welcoming the support provided by assistants. Our experience attests to this – in only six weeks of the Zazi iZandi, the proportion of pupils meeting the 40-letters-per-minute benchmark grew, from 12.3% to 32.4% . When the intervention contracts ended, Masinyusane retained more than 100 assistants through other sources of funding, because we simply could not afford to lose the gains made in schools or in the lives of those young people.

Our assistants showed us that unemployment looks different; mostly females, some fresh out of school needing direction, others with completed tertiary qualifications are looking for opportunities. They head families, they are mothers, they are steadfast anchors in their household, navigating poor job prospects, food insecurity, mental health and trauma.