Aug-Sept 2014 K.indd

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AUG/SEPT 2014 • www.cosatu.org.za

South African Youth Conditions and Mental Health Papikie Mohale, SAMWU National Media Officer

O n the 12th August 2014, the world celebrated International Youth Day which came to be after the United Nations General Assembly endorsed recommendations by the World Conference of Ministers responsible for youth in 1998. This year’s celebrations were been themed “Youth and Mental Health” under the theme “Mental Health Matters”. This year, South Africans celebrated the 38th anniversary of the 1976 youth uprisings. The 1976 uprisings made an important mark in South African history when the youth revolted against the Bantu Education Act of 1953. This act seeked to legitimise certain aspects of the Apartheid rule in the country by enforcing racial separation of institutions of learning. The Act further gave birth to the 1974 Afrikaans Medium Decree which forced all black schools to use

Albeit the rough conditions which pupils have to endure, some have managed to defy the odds and go through the education system. We should be concerned that of the pupils that register for Grade 1, only half of them make it through the schooling system. There should be greater investment in the educations of South African youth. After all, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world” Nelson Mandela. Greater investment in the youth would undoubtedly guarantee the future of this country. The investment in education will play a major role in the eradication of poverty and unemployment. Unemployment has plagued the youth of South Africa. Unemployment, in particular youth unemployment has become an obstacle in the fi ght against poverty in the country. According to the latest

Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. This did not come as a surprise, noting that the Apartheid education system was designed to direct black South Africans to the unskilled labour market. In the words of Hendrik Verwoerd “What is the use of teaching the Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice?” Today South Africa has an education system which does not discriminate on the basis of race. Our education system discriminates on the basis of fi nances, parents who are unable to afford private schooling for their children are forced to take their children to public schools. Our public schools are overcrowded, underresourced and understaffed. As a testament of this, government of fi cials have resorted to taking their children to private schools as a sign that they have no con fi dence in our public education system.

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