The Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) conducted an audit of all three Phases of the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI) in the Basic Education Sector. In which it found many issues regarding the placement and management of education and general school assistants.
More than 300 000 young people were placed at schools around the country working as general and education school assistants during Phase 1 of the initiative.
During Phase 1 AGSA found that there was inadequate orientation on the recruitment, conditions of employment as well as the roles and responsibilities of general and education assistants.
They also found that there was inadequate management of the assistants' attendance and absenteeism which lead to the education and general assistant absenteeism to exceed the allowed leave days.
Some of those who were appointed as assistants during Phase 1 also did not meet the qualifying criteria according to the Framework for the implementation of the Basic Education Employment Initiative (which takes into consideration age and gender representation, police clearance, ID and qualification).
The budget for Phase 1 was R6 998 800, however only R5 572 716 was spent.
In Phase 2 more than 270 000 placements were made at schools, however AGSA found that schools did not meet their placement targets and they did not meet their training targets either. They believe this lead to lost opportunities for the youth and communities.
In this Phase R5 602 672 was spent which was below the budget of R6 000 000.
AGSA found that there was good planning and guidance by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) however this was not reflecting at the school level.
The monitoring of Phase 3 showed that many of the recruitment issues were improved on however funds weren't allocated properly and no records were kept on the attendance of education and general assistants, attendance of orientation and training or the transfers of money at the different schools.
Nearly 250 000 placements were made in this phase and the unused funds from the budget for Phase 3 will be used during Phase 4 of the initiative.
Applications for Phase four of the Presidential Youth Unemployment Initiative (PYEI), implemented as the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI) will open on 26 September 2022, with more than 200 000 jobs on offer.
