Responding to the crisis of youth unemployment starts with reducing the school dropout rate

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s plan to tackle youth unemployment lacked critical focus because it fails to speak to the high rate at which pupils drop out of school, the Zero Dropout Campaign said on Friday.

Reacting to Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address, the director of the campaign, Merle Mansfield, termed the dropout rate a “hidden crisis”.  

“The fact of the matter is that 44 percent of unemployed young people have not completed Grade 12 — adding to their struggle of finding a decent job,” Mansfield said.

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