The Basic Education Employment Initiative, which enables young people to pursue teaching assistant employment opportunities in schools, has recently entered its third phase.
The Provincial Education Department in the Eastern Cape recently held a workshop briefing in which Department officials reflected on the contributions made by the first two phases of the programme.
Speaking to members of the media, the province's Head of Education Department, Dr Naledi Mbude said that the Presidential Youth Employment Employment Initiative (PYEI) workshops have been resourceful in ensuring that the Department operates at its maximum efficiency.
The success of the first two phases was the fact that we had young people in schools who would be there just to listen to the young learners out there and just to be there for them because in teaching, anxiety levels were high during Covid.
She further points that the initiation of both previous phases of the PYEI program has contributed immensely towards curbing the impact of the previous rotational schooling, implemented due to Covid-19 restrictions.
She added that this was particularly the case in providing emotional support to learners, some of whom may have lost family members during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“These young people provided that opportunity, that safety-net, that there is somebody else that they can go to, there's somebody else that they can report to if there's anything in the absence of somebody at home who can do that for them. So that is our big success” she added
Nkosinathi Mvumbi, a principal at one of the schools in the province, went on to say that the PYEI programme has done a lot in ensuring that they have a conducive working environment, particularly where safety and hygiene were a major concern.
The third phase of the Basic Education Employment Initiative commenced on 1 April 2022, you can click here to see some of the frequently asked questions about the program that have been addressed by the Education Department.
