The South African Youth

Reflecting back on the tragedy that just occurred at Columbine High School in capital of Colorado Colorado and the gen durationlizations being made ab step up the U.S early daysfulnessfulness and the crisis that we atomic number 18 in and supposedly are experiencing ,I decided to research the jejuneness crisis in second Africa.There is at present no youth crisis as such. n one and only(a)theless boyish plenty find themselves in the midst of a lean of crises that should be addressed desperately by the state and society. south African youths as a category refers to southeasterly Africans between 15 and 30 years of age they constitute 29,5% of the tribe, yet there is no country large youth policy in place to attend to their needs. Most issueish people share common values of society signs of radicalism and militarism are open up in scarcely a minority of youth.Only a lessened percentage of sec Africas youth can be considered truly marginalized as the countrys youth as a whole and therefore can non be c all(prenominal)(prenominal)ed a lost generation. Thirty-seven per cent of southwest Africa population were downstairs the age of 15 in 1991. It can be compared with the average of 40% for similar countries in the world, less-developed countries averaging 44% and industrialized countries 23%. The com status of people between 15 and 30 years, comprised 29,5% of South Africas population. Figures for racial categories predict a total of approximately 8,3 million (75%) smuggled, 1,4 m. (12%) white, 1,1 m. (10%) washy and 300 000 (3%) Asian youths in this group.There are mevery problems for the South African Youth and around of the most challenging problems include family and community instability that leads to a wide range of another(prenominal) social problems for youth. The sable family has been under enormous rail line partly because of an commandment arrangement that is not providing all youth with relevant and quality education. Econ omic stagnation, together with inadequate education, has resulted in high levels of unemployment and poverty, specially among women and blacks.Demographic factors which continue to impact on the South African population and more specifically the youth. It has been estimated that by 1995, 50% of the age cohort 15 to 19 will live in urban areas.The extent to which infantile people from the polar racial and cultural groups accept become quarantined from one another, with the accompanying negative stereotypes, intolerance and racism.A historical reexamine in the report leaves little doubt that South African youth beget over the years been victims of semipolitical and socio-cultural crises. They have been subjected to poverty, blatant political manipulation, racial and other divisions that tore the country apart, and a lack of any systematic youth policy to attend to their needs. As a group, they have for many years been largely ignored by the leaders in control of their destiny. And yet, from the earliest decades of the century, they have attempted to assert themselves by forming youth organizations, by protesting against injustices and by insisting on a decent education and living conditions.Unemployment has been a struggle for the South African Youth. Studies show just about 42% of youth between the ages of 15 and 30 were unemployed. Young women were peculiarly disadvantaged. In the first place, they were less likely to be part of the sedulousness force because large numbers were problematic in unpaid internal work. Secondly, they found it difficult to find employment while being involved in unpaid domestic work. Unemployment affects the unmarried, junior members of households more adversely than the other members. Unemployment is high in the homelands and in urban areas that comprise squatter and on the loose(p) settlements close to the major metropolitan area. It is however unclear as to whether unemployment is higher in rural or in urban areas. At the time, studies indicate 45% of the black, 12% of the white, 40% of the colored and 29% of the Asian youth were unemployed.Family structure and living conditions play an important design. The core family has been seriously stirred by social upheavals. Studies indicate that 22% of white, 20% of Asian, 32% of colored and 40 % of black families are currently headed by fe manlys. Stability whitethorn be found in nuclear, extended, flux or single-parent families. The extended kinship system among blacks and Asians seems to cushion the negative effects of stop nuclear family units. However, many youths are not experiencing stability of an enduring nature, and it emerges from surveys that a lot of young people are receiving only fragmented care. The lack of control, supervision and vigilance is clearly linked to teenagers negative behavior such as inebriant and drug abuse, crime, indiscriminate and unprotected sexual activities, etc.Percentages of teenage pregnancies and birth s out of wedlock are unacceptably high and AIDS is a shake up reality.Amenities such as electricity, on-tap water, waterborne sewerage, refuse removal, etc, are massively under provided to blacks. Black youth live in homes of which 46 % do not have running water and 57 % have no electricity. Only 53 % blacks have access to television Over the liveliness span of todays youth, a third of all Asian families, nearly a quarter of all colored families and nearly a fifth of the black population were forcibly moved by one method or another.Culture and youth organizations play a very important billet in the South African youth of today. Studies affirm that one cannot in truth speak of a single, monolithic youth culture. In an era of rapid social transformation, stereotyped binary cultural oppositions such as urban/rural, elitist/popular, modern/ handed-down, are also losing their essential distinctive value. For example, some(a) research point to the possibility that the position that you th occupied in traditional, conservative societies has changed with urbanization and westernization.Recognition of youths new, more assertive position has important implications for policy formulation regarding their diversity and their ability not only to react to change and development just now actually help thread it. On the other hand, one study showed that, in spite of in diligent signs of racism, 60% of adolescents from all the population groups preferred to identify themselves as South African, which may indicate an increasing sense of shared identity, if not unity. The present processes of societal transformation and democratization make the promotion of a shared culture and values essential something that should start at schoolhouse level.Recreation and sports play an important role in young peoples lives 41,7% of male youth and 18,7% of female youth in South Africa are active members of sports fellowships. Only 16,3% of all youth however belonged to a youth club and o nly 8,4% belonged to a cultural organization. Facilities for sports, recreational and organizational activities are urgently needed.The crisis in education is well documented. Black education was seriously disrupted during the 1980s. However, black education expanded greatly in an attempt to gather its communitys needs, and improved its retention rates at the same time, despite a range of crises that were almost beyond human imagination. For the majority of black youth in South Africa, access to secondary education is restricted to traditional secondary schools where places are limited, facilities are not up to standard, teachers are not properly qualified and access to subjects such as mathematics, physical science, economics, stock economics, accounting, etc, is limited because of a shortage of teachers qualified in these subjects. This causes the whole system to be skewed in favor of such subjects as biology, geography, fib and biblical studies, which are the four most popular non-language subjects among black pupils. intelligibly if this trend were to continue, the youth would be even more frustrated with the acquisition opportunities offered to them.Violence and crime remain endemic in the country and have many destructive effects on youth. Scientific research has shown that black respondents generally rejected violence as a political option, exclusively that about 20% of the white the respondents tended to be militarized in their outlook.In a new democracy like South Africa it is imperative that all its citizens should be politically literate to enable them to participate fully in all eccentricts of a democratic society. Several studies on political literacy among young South Africans have suggested that this countrys youth are not well aware about politics.There is probably no area of South African life which has more compellingly shown the extent to which apartheid has isolated and insulated different sections of this countrys youth from one an other than the area of politics. Youth who grew up in the security and stillness of white neighborhoods could fully participate in the parliamentary politics of apartheid South Africa if they wished to do so. They had very little knowledge or understanding of the acetous realities of township life whichconfronted the vast majority of South Africas youth every day. For most white youths the events, that have adjournn place in South Africas black townships since the mid-seventies, were nothing more than images on the television screen events they were socialize to interpret as being initiated by radical (communist inspired) people who were attempting to take away their (whites) privileged position. Indeed, white and black youths under apartheid lived in different worlds.Studies have shown that the above problems are ameliorated by ii sets of findings, namely that the South African youth by no means represent a uniform category of people, and that the majority of South Africas yo ung people demand to play a constructive role in the creation of a new South Africa. Their rejection of violence, their respect for the cultural and racial diversity in South Africa, the value they place on education and training are all very important to the South African youths of today and in that sense we American youths should learn a thing or two from them.They have adapted in remarkable and innovative ways to the a great deal painful processes of rapid change, and although they may lack skills and opportunities, they are eager to face the challenge of reconstruction and development. Most of them share their communities values and are fundamentally conservative in their views. Only 8% of the sample claimed no spectral affiliation the majority felt that religion played an important role in their daily lives.In conclusion that the tide may be turning for the countrys youth. Population growth rates are decreasing, income distribution is bonny more equal, the assault on famil y structures was balanced by the growth of the compound family, a legitimately elected government is in place and a national youth policy has been promised in the RDP.June 16 has been declared a public holiday and renamed Youth Day. Not only youths many contributions to the country, but in particular their sacrifices and hardships have not gone unnoticed or unappreciated.