Preparing school leavers for what lies beyond

In South Africa, 3.4 million young people do not have jobs, are not in school and are not receiving a proper education. With no income or education they are likely to be poor and unemployed for the rest of their lives. They are vulnerable to social ills including substance abuse, crime and gangsterism – which is rife in the townships. If they have children, they will not be able to support them fully.

According to the Department of Basic Education, only 10% of children who start school end up matriculating, with the dropout rate in Grade 10 currently at 44.6%. Critical to any intervention that seeks to make an impact in alleviating poverty and youth unemployment in South Africa, therefore, is support of the child throughout their school career.

Afrika Tikkun’s cradle to career model supports the child’s holistic development and education from early infancy through our Early Childhood Development programme, throughout their school career, and up until the time they can be placed in work. In South Africa, faced with a unique set of challenges and exigencies, this commitment to the full lifespan of the youth offers the best and most reasonable solution.

The beginning of 2017 saw Afrika Tikkun celebrate yet another year of great matric results, with a 98% pass rate of its beneficiaries, up from 94% in 2015. Our Grade 12 learners finished with a total of 64 distinctions and 158 tertiary acceptances.

Centres of excellence

Working in schools and from its five centres of excellence in Johannesburg and Cape Town, learners are provided with career guidance; they are taught study skills and learning skills; and are counselled about career paths.

Afrika Tikkun believes that every young person deserves the opportunity to be the best they can be, which means ultimately finding productive and fulfilling work. Its main programme, targeted at school-going children, provides a series of activities that enhance the young person not only in terms of academic support but in the total development of the individual.

Regular attendance of the over 5,000 registered beneficiaries empowers young people to make positive life, learning and career choices, and the ability to take responsibility for their own lives. Through tutoring, mentoring, access to the library, the internet and computers, young people are motivated to improve their academics and end up completing matric (or an alternative pathway). They are nurtured to become leaders, active citizens and lifelong learners.

Beneficiaries are supported holistically: they receive nutritional support, social support and also primary health care at some of our centres.

Camps: a safe place to study

The libraries at some of Afrika Tikkun’s community centres often host camps for Grade 12s (matric year) which is an opportunity for the learners to get enough time to study. Many young people share a one-room shack with their parents and siblings; others stay next to a tavern or shebeen, and others come from abusive families or environments where there is little or no infrastructure to support learning, including electricity.

The camps give them a safe learning and study environment in what is one of the most important period in their lives.

As a result of the camps, our Grade 12 results and university acceptance rates have improved dramatically – by 60% in one centre – enabling beneficiaries to become eligible for further education and training.

Since the first camp, the libraries have extended their operational hours, and ensured that learners are fed and safely returned home after studying.

Afrika Tikkun supports every beneficiary registered in its centres in the townships of Alexandra, the inner city of Johannesburg, Diepsloot and Orange Farm in Gauteng as well as Mfuleni in the Western Cape.

Particular emphasis is given to Grade 9, when subject choices are made. Grade 11s benefit from a special Saturday School offering mathematics, English, accounting and sciences. Matriculants from our Diepsloot centre also receive support from the American International School of Johannesburg where they have access to the physical science laboratory. This is an invaluable resource.

Beyond the matric examinations

Beyond the exams, librarians follow up with learners to see if they are in tertiary institutions and offer support with regard to bursaries, learnerships and other opportunities. Graduates are often invited back to the centre to motivate the next generation of matriculants.

One such person is Kegomoditswe. Coming from a single-parent family and a household without income, she was determined to excel and visited our library every day during her matric year. At the end of the year she received five distinctions. Thanks to the guidance and support of the librarian, she was awarded a full scholarship to study mechatronic engineering at the University of Cape Town.

Eighteen-year-old Alice Maimela lost her only parent, her mother, while writing her Grade 12 preliminary examinations. She found comfort and support in her friends and Afrika Tikkun’s library mentor, Cate Masetla, and went on to pass her matric with four distinctions.

“Afrika Tikkun helped me cope with losing my mother. I couldn’t study at home because everything reminded me of my mother, and she used to be very loud so studying in a quiet house reminded me of the gap she left,” she said.

Despite her good matric results, Alice is unable to afford the fees for further study. Hoping to start studying law in 2018, she is currently working at her school as a student teacher and is encouraging this year’s batch of matriculants at Afrika Tikkun.

Tertiary study costs are prohibitive for many of our beneficiaries, and many fail to apply or are forced to drop out. Our Youth Skills Development and Placement programme provides career guidance, job readiness training, job placement and bursaries for further learning. This is targeted at young adults with a matric or equivalent between the ages of 19 and 35 years, although the primary focus is youth from 19 to 25.

To date, 607 beneficiaries like Alice have been placed in learnerships, internships and entry-level jobs. Those who have not been placed are currently going through interviews to determine appropriate job placements.

Onyi Nwaneri is the director: strategy, partnerships and communications at Afrika Tikkun, a South African-based non-governmental organisation which provides education, health and social services to disadvantaged youth from cradle to career.