Never too young to learn about democracy: 2014 Schools Democracy Week begins
The second annual Schools Democracy Week (SDW) has kicked off in schools as part of a joint project between the Electoral Commission of South Africa and the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to educate young people about democracy. The project will continue until 19 October in schools throughout South Africa.
The short-term intention of the collaboration between the Commission and the DBE is to support the drive to increase youth registration and to educate youth and first-time voters on registration and voting. The long-term objective is to entrench active participation as fundamental civic responsibilities, and to institutionalise and infuse electoral democracy content into the formal school curriculum at all levels.
The first Schools Democracy Week was held in 2013 following the signing of a 3-year Memorandum of Agreement between the Electoral Commission and DBE in 2013 to address the challenges of increasing youth participation in electoral democracy.
While young people make up the majority of the South African population (40% of our current total population of some 53 million people was born after the advent of our democracy in 1994 and nearly two-thirds of our population is under 35 years of age), participation by young people is not as high as that for older voters.
Only 28% of potential voters under 30 voted in the 7 May 2014 elections compared to an average turnout of over 60% for those aged 40 and older and 70% for those aged 60 and older.
Stimulating teaching and learning support materials were developed to support the 2014 Schools Democracy Week activities and have been printed and distributed to provincial and local offices of the Electoral Commission including:
- 58-page booklet “Becoming a Good Citizen: Electoral Democracy Toolkit” for learners in secondary schools in the Further Education and Training band; and
- 95-page booklet “Not Too Young – Teaching Electoral Democracy to Young South Africans” for teachers and younger learners in primary schools in the General Education and Training band.
Additional fact sheets covering registration and various aspects of electoral democracy will also be provided to schools as part of this week’s activities.
All materials and classroom activities are linked to co-curricular activities and social media opportunities on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. The week, which involves all nine provinces, encompasses both civic education and electoral registration activities.
For more details on the Schools Democracy Week programme and materials, please visit the IEC website at www.elections.org.za or the Department of Basic Education’s website at https://www.education.gov.za/.
For media queries:
Kate Bapela
Cell: 082 600 6386
E-mail: spokesperson@elections.org.za
Elijah Mhlanga
Department of Basic Education
Cell: 083 580 8275
E-mail media@dbe.gov.za
