Opinion - Since 1994, South African society has been on a path of political, economic and social transformation.
Democracy in South Africa has brought many opportunities and challenges, especially for the youth - the leaders of tomorrow.
These challenges are compounded by the new digital form of communication, which offers new opportunities as well as threatens South African youth in the 21st century.
The youth are confronted by many rival forces - ranging from the righteous to the unrighteous - that are all competing for their attention.
While on the one hand they are being challenged by the forces of the technocratic age, they are on the other hand also being confronted by the problems of HIV and Aids, sexual and verbal abuse, gender discrimination, racial tensions, and substance abuse, which constitute a serious threat to their social well-being.
Youth worldwide - challenged by swiftly changing career and job sectors in a ruthlessly competitive material world that celebrates crass material success above all else - are also confronted by violence in the home, school and community, and have to deal with issues such as familial disintegration and divorce with little or no support systems.
Post-apartheid South Africa came with many promises, but the most significant challenges facing children in South Africa are poverty, child abuse and violence, HIV and Aids, fragmentation of the family unit, loss of caregivers and unsafe environments.
The Children’s Institute has reported that many children have been the victims of aggravated assault and rape.
According to the Centre for Aids Development, Research and Evaluation, many South African females are forced to have sex and are therefore at serious risk of contracting HIV and Aids.
Sexual violence is reaching epidemic proportions.
There are also reports of the prevalence of suicidal behaviour among learners in South African schools.
Mutual respect between teachers and learners; teachers and education authorities; teachers and parents, is starkly absent in education, as is evident by the articles that appear regularly in newspapers.
Daily, one finds reports of immoral behaviour on the part of teachers and learners.
Police have reported that the number of learners carrying weapons and drugs during school hours is on the increase.
In one report, a 13-year-old learner bludgeoned a female teacher with a hammer in the presence of his other Grade8 classmates.
There are incidents in the education system of fraud, theft and misuse of authority being reported on a regular basis.
For example, a teacher was dismissed from the profession for committing subsidy fraud with a learner’s matriculation examination fees.
A student at a secondary school reported she was raped by two boys from her school. However, a few days later the “rape victim” admitted it was consensual sex she had had with the two boys.
Several teachers and principles are being investigated for impregnating pupils. South African society is marked by violence, especially in KZN, affecting the well-being of learners in the province.
This is linked to the legacy of apartheid and the political contests in the province since the late 1980s.
Clearly, youth have a lot more freedom in the democratic era.
However, what is often ignored or forgotten is that freedom has to be accompanied by responsibility and accountability.
This is a serious problem in a society where corrupt businesspeople and criminals are seen as role models for the youth.
While they have to become adept at making informed decisions, the youth will also be expected to protect themselves from abuse.
Since the youth are regarded as a precious treasure of a nation, the education given to them should effectively mould and equip them for the tasks of tomorrow.
It is noteworthy that the World Health Organisation has argued for a programme of life skills in order to protect the youth from the demands of modern life, poor parenting, changing family structures, dysfunctional relationships, and decline of religion.
Henry Giroux, an American and Canadian scholar and cultural critic, however, is concerned there is a generation of youth being framed as a generation of suspects.
According to Giroux (2001: 149) “the growing popular perception of youth as threat to public life is connected to the collapse of public discourse, the increasing militarisation of public space, and the rise of state apparatus bent on substituting policing functions for social services”.
He makes a call for the youth to have recourse to adults who need to understand the problems of youth and warns against the process of demonising the youth.
Giroux feels there is an increasing refusal by society to understand the problems of the youth.
He says: “Most importantly, what critics take up as a youth problem is really a problem about the corruption of politics, the shrivelling up of public spaces and resources for young people, the depoliticalisation of large segments of the population and the emergence of a corporate and media culture that is defined through an unadulterated authoritarian form of kinship that is masculinist, intolerant and militaristic.”
Giroux has made a call for people to understand how the youth produce and engage in popular culture.
This means that the young people of a generation do not live in any kind of historical, political or economic vacuum.
Rather than demonising the youth, teachers and parents need to understand and help the younger generation to “navigate a complex and rapidly changing cultural landscape.
There is a vacuum in terms of inculcating moral and ethical values in the youth.
The faith sector has an important role in this regard. In a society where more than 80% of the population are actively religious, this places a huge responsibility on the faith sector.
If one has to decrease the chasm that exists between the plethora of values contained in sacred scriptures and the youths’ acceptance of these values, then one would have to agree with Giroux, who is not in favour of passing sweeping laws.
Instead, he prefers that work be done with the youth so that an investment can be made in their economic and social well-being.
* Lokesh Ramnath Maharaj is the president of the Shri Luxmi Narayan Temple (Mobeni Heights) and a lecturer in education at UKZN.
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