Over 95% of about 60 000 surveyed teachers and principals say the school assistants programme has vastly improved learning and want it to continue.

This was according to President Cyril Ramaphosa in his weekly letter to the nation, where he said teachers and principals noted that the programme had allowed them more time to focus on teaching. 

The programme is part of the Presidential Employment Stimulus, the largest youth employment intervention in the country’s history, which has reached close to a million participants. 

Ramaphosa said the second cohort of 245 000 young people will finish their ten-month placement as school assistants. They will join the ranks of about 600 000 young South Africans that have participated in the initiative since its launch in 2020. 

The school assistants have either supported teachers in the classroom or performed school maintenance, security, food garden production and other upkeep activities, Ramaphosa said.

He explained that updates sent by participants to the Department of Basic Education showed the impact the initiative had had on more than 22 000 participating schools around the country.

“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,” he said.

Aside from a monthly stipend, the programme has also 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.

Ramaphosa said government now needed to allow these young workers into formal employment, further education or entrepreneurship. 

The Youth Employment Service aims to place many of the young people in work experience positions in companies and the National Youth Development Agency will help those with business ideas.

“I am calling on all our partners, especially business, to harness the energies, talent, skills and experience of these young people to grow our economy. The quality work experience and training provided by this programme addresses the concerns of many businesses that young applicants lack skills and experience,” he said.

He also called 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 the SAYouth.mobi platform can be used to publicise opportunities that exist in the companies, explaining that there were currently 2.9-million young people registered on SAYouth.mobi and many organisations, companies and departments used the platform to provide opportunities.