The Department of Basic Education is working with Provincial Education Departments to ensure that all qualifying education assistants and General School Assistants employed in December, and who submitted all the required documents, are paid this month.
Some PEDs experienced challenges in processing the December stipends, due in part to, in some instances, incomplete paperwork submitted, which had to be returned to the affected schools to be rectified.
This happened at a time when schools were busy dealing with administration of end- of-year examinations, and preparations for the 2021 Academic Year, including finalising work related to 2021 post provisioning.
Provincial Education Departments are aware of the non-payment of some of the December stipends and are working with education districts to ensure that all necessary requirements are met, in order for everyone who qualifies to receive their payments.
The Presidential Employment Stimulus is a noble initiative that seeks to address youth unemployment, while simultaneously addressing the devastation of COVID-19 on households. For most young people employed under this initiative, this forms their first form of formal employment. The initiative gives hope to young people and will contribute to community upliftment. The youth will also be exposed to various forms of training that will empower them and improve their prospect of employability.
The Department of Basic Education is working with Provincial Education Departments to implement the Presidential Employment Stimulus, through the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI).
The initiative aims to create temporary employment opportunities for 300 000 youth between the ages of 18 and 35 years old. Of these, 200 000 are Education Assistants and 100 000 are General School Assistants.
The second objective of the Presidential Employment Stimulus is to save jobs. As such, another aspect of the BEEI pertains to the saving of School Governing Body (SGB) funded posts in fee paying schools and posts at government subsidized independent schools. To date, 22 526 jobs have been saved and PEDs are adjudicating of more applications to support the saving of more posts.
