(Please read it to the end...we are facing the same problem).
Education is a key that doesn’t fit to unlock economic opportunities for the youth
Alupheli | 02 December 2020
Many people from the black community get their degrees each year and hope for a job, not even a good paying job. Times are tough out there, graduates don’t get employment and the country’s unemployment rate at over 30 percentage points is astronomically high.
Platforms such as LinkedIn and Instagram are a hype of activity, individuals proudly display their “hard-earned” LLM, MBA, PhD., BA, BCom, LLB, BSc, BEng, and BTh degrees. They also show-off their diplomas and certificates.
Ordinarily, this would be a great sign of a nation at work and great prosperity. But the reality is a complete opposite.
The economy grows close to a zero percent mark and unemployment is said to be flying at close to 30 percent, as per Stats South Africa data. Besides millions that are classified as the NEET, or simply the people who are "Not in Education, Employment, or Training”, what is more concerning is that the youth and graduates form a large percentage of those who are without jobs.
The late Oliver Tambo is quoted to have said, “The children of any nation are its future. A country, a movement, a person that does not value its youth and children does not deserve its future.” Considering that the youth and children also suffer a great deal of violence, abuse and poverty, it means the country is very far off from safeguarding its future.
At the same time, people such as American human rights activist Malcolm X and former president Nelson Mandela comment positively about education, which they viewed as a necessary catalyst to breaking the chains of poverty and access to better opportunities in life.
Malcolm X, for example, once commented, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” On the other hand, Madiba saw education as “the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” If one were to ask the unemployed and uneducated youths what they think about about what the two leaders said, they are likely to disagree with them.
The youth in South Africa doesn’t have hope, and feel neglected. As things stand, young people (aged 18–34) make up almost a third of the country’s population at 17,84 million. That means that South Africa therefore is not taking advantage of its ‘youth dividend’.
The more one sees people posting their "success" on social media; one is led to conclude that there is a serious disconnect between the pictures and reality. Tertiary education, which is often financed through loans, is quickly becoming a waste of precious time for our children since the country appears to have no cogent plan for them.
Most graduates are not employed, and many others carry the burden of debt from their studies. Those who have jobs are in low paying posts, call centres or not doing anything related to what they studied. It was pointed out close to two decades ago that ours is an economy that does not create jobs.
Unfortunately, the present thinking doesn’t show that there is progress as expanded unemployment continues to rise unabated. Youth unemployment is approximated to be around 60 percent.
Those who believe in free-market gibberish will tell you that all we need is entrepreneurship to grow jobs. I dislike the notion of entrepreneurship with all my little love because it is just plain garbage.
Without changing the historical structure of the South African economy and its high prevalence of monopolies and their anti-competitive behaviour, there is absolutely no hope that entrepreneurial spirit in youth will ever be unleashed for the benefit of the country.
Seeing the achievements by young entrepreneurs such as Nkosana Makate and others, it is clear that there are so many people with ideas and energy, but their dreams remain in a trashcan. The job market is also not as welcoming since some of the smartest brains have nowhere to go.
One therefore feels grief and pain when trying to imagine what the future holds for the youth.
South Africa is risk-averse when it comes to supporting youth and such things as the National Youth Development Agency are more focused on politicking than helping their primary constituency, the young.
One tends to agree with those who argue that South Africa should unlock its own version of the "New Deal" by using state institutions and policy to relaunch the economy. Hundreds of professionals and young people can be employed in state-sponsored programmes, and things like macroeconomic policy can be deployed to alleviate the plight of youth.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to refocus state finance institutions like the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and others as well as state-owned entities to make this country to work. These development finance institutions waste scarce resources on dead investments.
After all, US economist Mariana Mazzucato believes that the state is actually more entrepreneurial than it is often acknowledged. Thus, bigger projects including creating economic opportunities for the youth cannot be de-linked from government economic plans. It is however saddening that even new blue-prints for economic recovery seem not to be alive to problem of youth poverty and exclusion.
State resources and policies, including fiscal spending and monetary policy, should be synchronised and moved away from the hegemony of big corporations and banks to concentrate on youth development. It has been a while since the notion of a ‘developmental state’ was introduced to the South African lexicon but it has not really translated into anything tangible.
This developmental state model has exceptionally works in many countries in Asia and elsewhere, and assisted places like South Korea, China and Singapore to change their fortunes in the last fifty years. South Africa needs to become serious about black empowerment, and inclusion of the black majority in the economy. In this way, it will deal with the problem of the marginalised youth head on.
The more the country dilly dallies on getting youth out of the misery of poverty and neglect, it is likely to become a gangster state where young people will be attracted to lawlessness and substance abuse. A generation is soon to be lost as the economic fortunes wane each day. For parents, they need to accept that they will have to look after their sons and daughters to age forty.
In conclusion, it is fair to say congratulations to all soon-to-be unemployed educated people. Education is clearly a key that doesn’t fit to unlock economic opportunities for the youth.