The Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI), implemented as the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI) is aimed at reducing youth unemployment in the country.
Phase four of the programme kicked off on 1 February 2023 and is expected to conclude in September 2023.
The commencement of the PYEI’s fourth phase saw more than 200,000 jobs created for youth at schools around the country.
According to the department, the main focus for Phase four is to provide support to educators to contribute towards improved learning outcomes. As a result, most of the youth are working with educators in the classroom as education and general assistants.
Principal Sipho Thembani at Chubekile Senior Secondary School in the Eastern Cape said the programme has been very helpful to the school and there has been a significant difference since the teaching and general assistants were placed at his school.
What I would like for the programme to improve, for starters I would wish that the programme can continue the whole year. From when we open the schools until we close the schools.
He continues, “Currently there is a gap in the programme. It started on the 1st of March, and it will end in September. So, there are those extra months that are left not covered by the programme.”
Principal Thembani said to ensure that there is an assistant for every teacher, he would love to see more young people assigned to his school.
Furthermore, he noted that the assistants are not teachers and are not required to teach, as teaching and assessment remains the responsibility of the teacher.
These are not educators and therefore they are not teaching, they are only assisting teachers in their administration work.
The education assistants are expected provide support in classrooms by helping prepare lessons and support teachers during lessons and manage learners after lessons.
General assistants on the other hand, are placed as e-cadres and are required to assist with ICT integration in teaching and learning. In the past phases, schools have also used e- cadres to support with administrative tasks.
Other categories will be Care and Support Assistants, who will provide basic psychosocial support to learners, who will support the implementation of sports, arts and culture activities; and handymen and women, whose main responsibility will be to help with the upkeep and maintenance of school buildings.
All work that will be done by the youth is supervised by a mentor.
The department is currently hosting provincial workshops to determine which provinces are performing differently compared to the other phases.
