Digital skills divide in South Africa drives drop-outs

Learners work on projects at the ‘Heart for Art’ programme.

Learners work on projects at the ‘Heart for Art’ programme.

Published Oct 28, 2021

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CAPE TOWN - Inequality and a massive digital skills divide in South Africa have been a consistent driver of grade repetitions and dropouts.

In addressing these and other barriers to education, the Lights on After School campaign, which takes place today, gives children the opportunity to grow and develop as best they can.

The Lights On After School is an annual global campaign that puts the spotlight on the critical role the after-school sector plays in nurturing the youth.

This year’s theme is #HelpingkidsRecover – with the focus being on how non-profit after-school programmes (ASPs) are helping vulnerable children recover what has been lost over the last 18 months of the pandemic.

Under the umbrella campaign, the Youth and After School Programme Office, DCAS, the provincial government, The Learning Trust, and Community Chest of the Western Cape have joined forces to drive the initiative.

The Butterfly Art project is one of the participating after-school programmes in this campaign, in the Western Cape.

“Learning gaps are not new; we have long left many young people behind with every year of schooling, leading to grade repetitions and dropouts,” said Sibongile Khumalo, executive director of The Learning Trust.

“Covid’s trail of destruction has only deepened these learning losses. Catch-up intervention is therefore critical, and this is where the ASP sector proves pivotal in improving learning outcomes and nurturing holistic development.”

According to the Investment Case report released earlier this year by The Learning Trust, children last year learned between 50% to 75% less than children in 2019.

Further to this, the latest NIDS-CRAM findings indicate that up to 750 000 learners dropped out of school during the pandemic, about three times the pre-pandemic level.

Khumalo said that inequality and the massive digital skills divide in South Africa has been a consistent driver of grade repetitions and dropouts.

“After school programmes provide learners with resources and skills they otherwise wouldn’t have access to, and they do so in a safe, non-judgemental environment. No learner should have to drop out of school, and it certainly should not have to take an average of 15 years for any child to complete matric,” she said.

In the Eastern Cape, where literacy levels among children are the lowest in the country, the Masinyusane organisation has been offering critical extra after-school literacy lessons to children.

By providing over 20 000 hours of individual, customised literacy sessions to children throughout the pandemic, Masinyusane has helped children who have fallen behind in their education by at least a year, to stay afloat.

“In addition to our reading sessions, we have also sent tens of thousands of books from our school libraries to children so that they at least have books in their homes during the pandemic,” said Fiks Mahola, cofounder of Masinyusane.