Around 10 000 social grant recipients registered for matric in 2016 dropped out before their final exams, Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini said at the announcement of social grant recipients and Isibindi matric results at the Government Communication and Information Service in Pretoria earlier this month.
Around 10 000 social grant recipients registered for matric in 2016 dropped out before their final exams, Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini said at the announcement of social grant recipients and Isibindi matric results at the Government Communication and Information Service in Pretoria earlier this month.
Given that education was an important way for children to exit poverty, this was of great concern.
According to statistics from the Department of Basic Education, of those who sat for the 2016 matric exams, 188 758 were grant recipients. Of these, 173 085 were Child Support Grant recipients, 14 926 were Foster Child Grant recipients and 676 were Care Dependency Grant recipients.
The Department of Social Development (DSD) and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) led by Dlamini, earlier this month announced how NSFAS would assist social grant beneficiaries who pass their matric and are accepted at institutions of higher learning.
In 2016, the Department of Social Development partnered with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and NSFAS in an effort to ensure that poor and vulnerable learners have access to funding to further their studies by doing away with the means test for social grant beneficiaries.
The collaboration is aligned to the Protocol Agreement on Linking Social Protection Administrative Data Systems for Poor and Vulnerable Learners with the aim to track, locate and improve the well being of poor and vulnerable learners with a basket of social protection services.
Dlamini said the department, through the South African Social Security Agency, distributed R11 billion in social grants to South Africa's vulnerable and poor.
These included children living in child and youth headed families and those in foster care families.
One of the department's most successful programmes, she said, was Isibindi, which deploys child and youth care workers in communities to assist children in vulnerable homes.
In 2016, 3 400 matriculants were part of this programme, Dlamini said.
"The assistance by Isibindi child and youth care workers ensures that our children remain in school and attend classes," Dlamini said.
The child and youth care workers support these children and make sure they are relieved from household responsibilities, including being parents to their siblings, while they are trying to pass Grade 12.
The Department of Social Development supported 300 Isibindi sites across the country, managed by community based organisations. Combined, they support 200 000 children and youth, Dlamini said.
"In addition to the social assistance interventions, it is important that poor children are assisted to complete their basic schooling and further their studies. Education is a major vehicle through which children can exit poverty," Dlamini said.
The current Protocol Agreement had been extended to include the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to ensure that poor children have access to financial assistance to either study at a Universities or Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, Dlamini said.
"This policy reforming initiative is at its infancy but it allows academically eligible social grant beneficiaries not to be double means tested for financial eligibility. A special outreach project was initiated in October 2016, which was at aimed at reaching a large number of poor and vulnerable children in Grade 12 to apply for NSFAS funding for the 2017 academic year."
Dlamini said special strategies had also been employed to reach poor children, especially in the Quintile 1, 2, 3 schools, as well as children attending Quintile 4 and 5 schools.
According to Department of Basic Education, 674 620 full time learners registered to write for the National Senior Certificate. Of this total, 188 758 were social grant beneficiaries. Among those, 178 411 grant beneficiaries wrote their examinations (95%).
"This suggests that over 10 000 grant recipients dropped out of school before sitting for their final examinations. We commit to investigating reasons for this dropout," Dlamini said.
Of social grant learners who wrote matric, 112 409 were girls living in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. However, only 66 002 were boys. "It is time that we pay attention to our boys," Dlamini said.
Dlamini said 41% of grant recipients received a Bachelor’s pass – most of those from KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
She said results showed that overall, 83% of grant recipients were eligible to further their studies for either a diploma or a degree.
"This information is vital particularly for NSFAS, as these students should automatically qualify for funding to further their studies at institutions of higher learning," Dlamini said.
"With the removal of the means test for financial eligibility on social grant beneficiaries, there should be no hindrance in them pursuing their chosen careers."
