Johannesburg - Today is National Children’s Day and child rights organisations said it was an important observance that prompts South African society to acknowledge and appreciate the rights afforded to children by our Constitution.
The right to education is among the freedoms afforded to children in section 28 of the South African Bill of Rights. Yet according to the 2021 General Household Survey, the drop-out rate among school-going learners increased over the last year.
Within the context of the country’s record-high youth unemployment rate, this reality is indicative of an urgent need to focus on school-level education as a national priority. Managing director of NGO Crew for a Cause, Matthew Sterne, said the imperative rests with all sectors as well as South African society at large.
“We cannot relegate the responsibility for fulfilling children’s right to education to the state. The most viable and sustainable solution to ensuring that our children receive good quality education will require large-scale collaboration – initiatives at the level of private sector players and positive action that people can take as individuals,” he said.
A report by Amnesty International suggests South Africa is failing too many of its young people when it comes to education. This assertion was supported by a review of the current state of affairs in schools across the country, one characterised by run-down infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms and poor educational outcomes.
The research revealed that many of the country’s schools lack facilities such as basic sanitation, demarcated classrooms that are large enough to host the required number of learners and learning materials such as textbooks and stationery. At the heart of the problem, however, is the fact that South Africa is one of the most unequal regions in the world with regards to the distribution of wealth and opportunities.
Crew for a Cause said inequality is the root cause of the socio-economic problems that face millions of South African learners. According to Statistics SA, the most prominent reasons why children do not attend school in South Africa include illness and disability (22.7%), poor academic performance (21.2%) and the inability to afford school fees (19.6%). Its findings also revealed a gender dimension to this prevailing state of inequality, with 13.4% of female learners dropping out of school due to family commitments, compared with 5% of males who stopped attending school because they have no interest in education.
“South Africa’s education system is characterised by polar opposites. On the one side of the scale, we see schools that still have pit latrines despite the state’s 2016 commitment to replace these hazardous facilities with proper sanitation. And on the other side we see schools with vast sports fields and complexes, smart classroom technology and extramural schedules. In my work in the NGO space, my main imperative is to play a role in lessening the divide between children who come from poorer, under-served communities and those who are better resourced,” he added.
In an appeal to decision-makers in the private sector as well as members of civil society, former Unisa vice-chancellor Professor Mandla Makhanya urged individuals to “take ownership” of these issues and do their part in investing in the future of the next generation of South Africans. The government’s limited fiscus necessitates partnerships between all role-players within society towards a unified goal of building a more equitable educational environment in South Africa.
Sterne suggests the rhetoric needs to shift from seeing education as a problem for the government to seeing it as an opportunity for all South Africans to be a part of the solution.
“There’s clearly still a lot of progress that needs to be made when it comes to protecting children’s rights in South Africa, as well as ensuring that children attend school and do not go to bed hungry. I have witnessed the power of the collective first-hand and stand firm in my belief that people in their personal or professional capacities can make a huge impact, if only they understand how important their individual contributions are towards the bigger picture,” he said.
Molo Songololo director Patric Solomon said recent amendments to the Children’s Bill, for example, aim to improve the definition of abandoned and orphaned children and related matters. However, crime stats and reports indicate that South Africa is failing to protect children.
“Incidents of child neglect, bullying, abuse and exploitation are common across South Africa. Many poor urban and rural children struggle to access child protection services and systemic poverty and violence are impacting negatively on our children. Child protection must be everybody’s business,” he said.
Solomon said while government social support for vulnerable children improved with more than 10 million now benefiting from social grants, far too many children continue to experience poverty, hunger, neglect, abuse, violence and crime.
The NGO added that recent child kidnappings and the high number of child killings also present a worrying picture.