SA’s youth jobless rate is the world’s worst
Statistics SA has revealed there are 6.2-million unemployed people between the ages of 15 and 24
Education expert Nic Spaull believes a fundamental problem with SA’s education system is that not all students are equipped with the basics in primary school. This comes after the Spectator Index ranked SA’s youth unemployment rate as the highest in the world. Of the countries it ranked‚ the Spectator Index said the five countries with the highest youth unemployment were SA at 52.8%; followed by Greece (36.8%)‚ Spain (34.9%)‚ Nigeria (33.1%) and Italy (32.5%). SA’s poor foundation-phase education system has repeatedly been linked to the country’s skills shortage. Spaull told TimesLIVE on Tuesday, that “78% of grade 4 children can’t read for meaning in any language and 61% of grade 5s can’t do basic maths. I think that is where the wheels come off and that’s where we should be focusing our attention.” Last week‚ basic education minister Angie Motshekga announced that the matric class of 2018 achieved an overall pass rate of 78.2%, which is an improvement on the previous year. The cla...
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