Pali Lehohla is not a man given to exaggeration. The nation’s statistician-general (SG) lives in a sub-terranean world where smart people churn out large volumes of data, emerging from time to time with a kind of “state of the nation” report on every conceivable subject from housing to unemployment to education, before disappearing again into the vast underworld of officially collected numbers.
Except when Mr Lehohla emerged from the depths this week.
The humble, soft-spoken SG released a “social profile of youth” report that must have sent chills down the spines of the most optimistic of citizens.
The parents, he said, commenting on the development of youth between 2009 and 2014, are “better equipped” than their children.
In that simple statement he devastated the South African narrative of consistent progress.
Since 1994 politicians have sold us the lie that things were getting better and better in education and training.
More children go to school, more learners pass grade 12, more young people go to university and more graduates get jobs.
This policy narrative is seductive… after all, Rome was not built in one day; given more time, South Africa simply gets better as we move away from apartheid because of well-meaning policies and well-intended politicians.
That is why we have pounced on pundits who claimed things were better under apartheid. Things were not better in the past, of course, but the post-apartheid redemption narrative was at stake.
No more. Black youth, in particular, are less equipped with education and skills to be able to get jobs than a previous generation.
And even when they have formal qualifications, they are less likely to find productive employment than lighter-skinned graduates.
There are all kinds of problems here: more young people are without education or jobs; sustained racial inequality among black and white youth when it comes to degrees and work; growing numbers of black African and coloured youth not finishing school and not completing university.
It is time to roll out familiar South African clichés such as the “ticking time-bomb”.
But what lies behind these scary numbers?
First, that going to school is not enough. A quality education matters and completing a degree matters more.
You are much more likely to get a job and earn good money if you have a degree compared to a matric certificate, and heaven help you if you don’t even have that.
Certification matters but so does colour. Graduates from the same university are more likely to get jobs depending on their race – the only possible conclusion here being institutionalised discrimination.
Where does all of this leave the country?
The even-tempered SG puts it best: “a cocktail of disasters”, a very bleak future for black youth.
Remember those disturbing pictures seen regularly in the media of black men captured by police and spread face-down on the ground or with hands tied behind their backs? Now you know how we got into this sad position as a society.
Now you should know also where all this enormous frustration comes from among youth in communities and on campuses.
It is the accumulation of social deficits (education, training, skills and jobs) that pushes the horizon way beyond black African and coloured youth, in particular, and that devastates hope for this particular demographic.
“We used to absorb these hardships during the struggle,” said a seasoned activist as he wondered why today’s youth turns violent so easily.
The answer is simple actually – the previous generation fought for an end to apartheid and, in consequence, a new country that was expected to end our misery. On the other hand, this current generation came into the new South Africa on a promise that is maddeningly elusive.
So what’s the solution?
The SG’s recommendation is surprisingly flat, unoriginal and grammatically clumsy: “Create an enabling environment that will propel young people to consider education as the best tool to poverty alleviation.”
Yawn! We know that. But the answer is not re-opening teacher education colleges, for example, for that will simply warehouse young black students while hoping for a job-generating economy.
No, the way out of this precarious future is to comprehensively fund quality preschool education, rebuild the primary school system so that pupils gain real competence in literacy and numeracy, retain especially boys in high-quality high school education, and then ensure that quality passes bring pupils into universities and technical colleges so that they get the degrees and diplomas that land them real jobs in a growing economy.
If this chain is weak at any point along the line, goodnight South Africa.
Professor Jonathan Jansen is vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State
Stats’ report on youth a chilling wake-up call
Except when Mr Lehohla emerged from the depths this week.
The humble, soft-spoken SG released a “social profile of youth” report that must have sent chills down the spines of the most optimistic of citizens.
The parents, he said, commenting on the development of youth between 2009 and 2014, are “better equipped” than their children.
In that simple statement he devastated the South African narrative of consistent progress.
Since 1994 politicians have sold us the lie that things were getting better and better in education and training.
More children go to school, more learners pass grade 12, more young people go to university and more graduates get jobs.
This policy narrative is seductive… after all, Rome was not built in one day; given more time, South Africa simply gets better as we move away from apartheid because of well-meaning policies and well-intended politicians.
That is why we have pounced on pundits who claimed things were better under apartheid. Things were not better in the past, of course, but the post-apartheid redemption narrative was at stake.
No more. Black youth, in particular, are less equipped with education and skills to be able to get jobs than a previous generation.
And even when they have formal qualifications, they are less likely to find productive employment than lighter-skinned graduates.
There are all kinds of problems here: more young people are without education or jobs; sustained racial inequality among black and white youth when it comes to degrees and work; growing numbers of black African and coloured youth not finishing school and not completing university.
It is time to roll out familiar South African clichés such as the “ticking time-bomb”.
But what lies behind these scary numbers?
First, that going to school is not enough. A quality education matters and completing a degree matters more.
You are much more likely to get a job and earn good money if you have a degree compared to a matric certificate, and heaven help you if you don’t even have that.
Certification matters but so does colour. Graduates from the same university are more likely to get jobs depending on their race – the only possible conclusion here being institutionalised discrimination.
Where does all of this leave the country?
The even-tempered SG puts it best: “a cocktail of disasters”, a very bleak future for black youth.
Remember those disturbing pictures seen regularly in the media of black men captured by police and spread face-down on the ground or with hands tied behind their backs? Now you know how we got into this sad position as a society.
Now you should know also where all this enormous frustration comes from among youth in communities and on campuses.
It is the accumulation of social deficits (education, training, skills and jobs) that pushes the horizon way beyond black African and coloured youth, in particular, and that devastates hope for this particular demographic.
“We used to absorb these hardships during the struggle,” said a seasoned activist as he wondered why today’s youth turns violent so easily.
The answer is simple actually – the previous generation fought for an end to apartheid and, in consequence, a new country that was expected to end our misery. On the other hand, this current generation came into the new South Africa on a promise that is maddeningly elusive.
So what’s the solution?
The SG’s recommendation is surprisingly flat, unoriginal and grammatically clumsy: “Create an enabling environment that will propel young people to consider education as the best tool to poverty alleviation.”
Yawn! We know that. But the answer is not re-opening teacher education colleges, for example, for that will simply warehouse young black students while hoping for a job-generating economy.
No, the way out of this precarious future is to comprehensively fund quality preschool education, rebuild the primary school system so that pupils gain real competence in literacy and numeracy, retain especially boys in high-quality high school education, and then ensure that quality passes bring pupils into universities and technical colleges so that they get the degrees and diplomas that land them real jobs in a growing economy.
If this chain is weak at any point along the line, goodnight South Africa.
Professor Jonathan Jansen is vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State
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