Abahlali baseMjondolo Youth League Press Statement first published here
SUMMARY OF STATEMENT – Young people in South Africa face many hardships like hunger, poor housing, bad schools, violence, and high unemployment. Many drop out or fail exams, and only a few qualify for university. The poor suffer the most due to inequality and neglect. Students need support and counselling, especially during exam results. To fix this, we must invest in equal education and value every child’s potential. Society needs big changes to create fairness and opportunity for all. If you need counselling Those who need counselling are encouraged to seek help by phoning 0800 21 22 23 – read more below
In a just society, every child would be received as a gift and supported to grow and flourish. However, young people in South Africa face conditions of extreme crisis.
Millions of children experience hunger while growing up, and one in four children have their growth stunted due to hunger. Millions grow up in shacks, and public schooling remains in an appalling state, especially in rural areas. Violence is common in schools. Unemployment is close to 75% for people under 24 years old. Rates of depression and anxiety are very high, as are rates of addiction and suicide. There are also extremely high levels of violence between young men and against women, with alcohol abuse often being a key factor.
The poor as a whole face conditions of organised abandonment due to the structural and pervasive contempt for our humanity. The youth face particularly severe conditions within this wider crisis of organised abandonment. This is why we have no choice but to commit to the revolutionary overthrow of the existing order—an order that is inhuman and immoral as it treats human beings as waste.
In these conditions of extreme crisis, all possible care must be taken to support young people.
The matric results will be announced today, 13 January. About 40% of children drop out of school before their final year, and around 20–25% fail the matric examination. The result is that less than half of all children pass matric. Of these, fewer than 40% attain marks that allow them to apply to study at universities.
This can be a very stressful time for those who did not pass, or for those who hoped to go to university but did not achieve the required marks. Learners and their parents should receive their results privately in a supportive setting that provides vocational counselling and psychological support. We encourage all young people who are experiencing stress and anxiety at this time to seek help from their families, friends, comrades, and the counselling options available to poor people. Nobody should suffer alone. The Youth League will offer all the support we can.
We are in this crisis together and must survive and overcome it together.
While it is important that every learner, teacher, and official in the Department of Education works as hard as they can to achieve the best possible results, we must always be aware that the poor receive a vastly inferior education compared to the rich and middle classes. There is very little investment in our schools, and although the many dedicated teachers deserve our full respect, sometimes our schools are sites of disrespect for learners, violence, and corruption.
Success at school is often directly linked to class, and until there is massive investment in public education and socially committed management, outcomes for the poor will continue to be much worse than for the middle classes and the rich. We cannot continue with a culture of celebrating the matric successes of the rich without acknowledging that a deeply unequal education system produces deeply unequal results. There needs to be a national project to ensure that all children are received with respect and given every opportunity to flourish.
Let us not forget that learners are not just statistics or headlines; they are individuals with rights, dreams, and the potential to contribute to our nation’s future. It is essential that during the issuing of results, vocational counselling and mental health services are made available and free for every student embarking on the journey of new discoveries.
The struggle to build an education system in which each child is received with dignity and respect and given the support to flourish and contribute to the development of society is at the heart of our struggle for socialism. Every child is precious, and a society that does not recognise this is a society in urgent need of revolutionary change.
We wish the class of 2024 all the best and for the road ahead. We congratulate all who have done well and express our solidarity and care for those who have been betrayed and disrespected by an unfair and unequal society.
Those who need counselling are encouraged to seek help by phoning 0800 21 22 23.
For further comment, please contact:
Youth Secretary
Thandeka Thusini
+27 76 647 9641
Youth Coordinator
Andile Mngadi
+27 71 550 2608
