Ramaphosa encouraged by success of teacher assistant programme

President Cyril Ramaphosa says he is encouraged by the success of the school teacher assistant programme which is part of the Presidential Employment Stimulus, the largest youth employment intervention by the government.

Writing in his weekly newsletter on Monday, Ramaphosa said at the end of this month, the second cohort of 245,000 young people will finish their 10-month placement in schools. They will join the ranks of about 600,000 young South Africans who have participated in the initiative since its launch in 2020, he said.

This would bring to close to 1-million the number of participants since the programme was launched. The school assistants have either supported teachers in the classroom or performed school maintenance, security, food garden production and other upkeep activities.

“Updates sent by participants to the department of basic education show the impact the initiative has had on more than 22,000 participating schools around the country,” said Ramaphosa.

“There are images of new libraries and reading corners. There are before-and-after pictures of barren school grounds now bursting with cabbages and of once dilapidated classrooms gleaming with new paint.

“There are videos of newly trained sports enrichment coaches running exercise classes and participants at laptops doing school administration.

“There are the stories of young South Africans who had been struggling to find work, and now have been able to make modest extensions to their homes, start small businesses or further their studies.”

Ramaphosa said of about 60,000 teachers and principals surveyed, more than 95% say the programme has greatly improved the learning environment in their schools and wanted it to continue.

“They say it has enabled them to focus more of their time on teaching.”

Beyond the monthly stipend, the programme has provided young people with work experience and skills. “They have received accredited training across several disciplines, ranging from digital literacy to basic bookkeeping, from child and youth care to bricklaying, plastering and plumbing,” he said.

The quality work experience and training provided by this programme addresses concerns of many businesses that young applicants lack skills and experience, said Ramaphosa.

He called on businesses to harness the energies, talent, skills and experience of these young people to grow the economy: “We call on businesses to participate in this process by taking advantage of the employment tax incentive to hire more young people and create learnerships.”

He said they could use the SAYouth.mobi platform to publicise opportunities that exist in their companies. There are 2.9-million young people registered on SAYouth.mobi and many organisations, companies and departments use the platform to provide opportunities to young people, he added.  

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