Recently, it was reported that according to the national voters roll statistics, 2019 has been noted to have seen the lowest count of youth voters for over 25 years.
This has begged the question if the disintegration of the South African youth’s refusal to vote is a deliberate act of defiance.
Judging by their abstinence from the voting polls, it seems that none of the 48 registered political parties were worth of their vote.
And do you blame them? The country, therefore, cannot ignore or refuse to recognise the frustration of the South African youth who have lost faith in the system and the government.
After all, it seems the youth feels they have been left destitute and rightfully so. The unemployment rate among the youth is alarmingly high with an increase from 52.8 per cent in 2018 to 57.70 in 2019.
June 16 is Youth Day, during which the country reflects on the massacre of schoolchildren during the Soweto uprising of 1976.
This is, however, not a South African initiative. The theme of International Youth Day 2019 is “Transforming Education”, which highlights efforts to make education more inclusive and accessible for all youth, including efforts by the youth themselves.
It is rooted in goal four of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
According to the United Nations, inclusive and accessible education is crucial to achieving sustainable development and can play a role in the prevention of conflict.
Quality education is critical, for it plays a crucial role in youth development and comprehensive youth development benefits society at large.
Education is thus seen as a ‘development multiplier’ as it plays a pivotal role in accelerating progress across all 17 sustainable development goals, be it poverty eradication, good health, gender equality, decent work and growth, reduced inequalities, action on climate or peaceful societies.
Sadly, in South Africa education it seems is the stumbling block, instead of achieving sustainable development and helping to prevent conflict. Thus, the ideals of the UN’s theme of education as a tool of transforming the lives of the youth does not align with the Rainbow Nation’s reality.
In South Africa, we still sit with not enough schools, thus inaccessibility of education, while poor quality of education and also unsafe education environments lead to lack of sustainable growth in knowledge.
Violence in schools is rife, with violence among learners escalating, while teachers also feel threatened.
Recently, at Forest High School a learner was stabbed to death in an apparent gang-related crime. In another incident, a teacher was shot dead at a school in the south of Durban.
This has prompted the Educators’ Union of South Africa to call for teachers to be allowed to bring guns to school to protect themselves, which will only fuel the fire of an already volatile relationship between learners and educators.
Thus, education is under fire, and if the very sanctity of education is threatened, then sadly all the goals of International Youth Day become a nightmare of unfilled promises and hopes.
The government must come up with a new paradigm of reaching out to our youth and using all our might to gain back their trust.
This includes drastically addressing the shortfalls in our education and the mounting fears and insecurities facing the youth. These are, after all, South African leaders in the making.
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