Central SA
More than 35 000 jobs created in education sector through initiatives─── TSHEHLA KOTELI 09:09 Sun, 29 May 2022
The Free State Department of Education has created over 35 000 jobs through the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative and the Basic Education Employment Initiative.
The departmental spokesperson, Howard Ndaba, explains the department will host the 9th national workshop on the initiatives in the next two days, and the Free State happens to be the last province to hold the workshop.
The purpose of the workshop is to review and strengthen the implementation of the R500 million presidential stimulus package which was announced in the previous year.
The Department of Basic Education was allocated R7 billion in the previous financial year and over R6 billion in the current financial year.
In a media statement, Ndaba states the workshop will be hosted in Bloemfontein at the Bon Hotel from 30 to 31 May.
The first phase of the two initiatives saw 20 000 jobs being created, whereas the second phase created 15 309 jobs.
Most of the jobs that were created were for young people that were assisting learners to catch up with the curriculum which was impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. They have in addition assisted in fixing school infrastructures such as windows, plumbing and painting.
The presidency has granted permission to extend the initiatives into phase three from April to August 2022. Phase three will proceed with the cohort of phase two who met the requirement.
The workshop will be attended physically by 200 delegates which include officials of the department, school principals and the current beneficiaries of the project. Other delegates will participate in the workshop virtually.
