A lot of thousands of South African youth have been a beneficiary of the youth government initiative since its birth in December 2020. Education Assistants have since played pivotal roles in public schools across the country.
The Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI) teacher assistant programme has helped elevate the burden off the shoulders of the education sector.
This group of young individuals works with both learners and teaching staff in Basic Education schools.
Teacher assistants are required to have a particular set of skills to thrive in the government youth initiative, mostly soft skills that will help with the teaching and learning progress in the classroom.
According to a government circular, the initiative recruits candidates who are either qualified unemployed graduates (NQF 6/7 or higher) or have an NQF level 4 (Matric) qualification.
Here are the roles and responsibilities of teacher assistants:
- Prepare the classroom for teaching and learning and ensure that teaching materials are available and ready for use.
- Hand out workbooks/textbooks to learners.
- Preparing mark sheets, keeping records, capturing marks.
- Distribute question papers, worksheets, classwork books, and marked scripts to learners.
- Assist the teacher with photocopying question papers, worksheets, etc.
- Support the teacher to manage behaviour in the classroom.
- Help learners with their educational and social development; maintain a safe, secure, and clean classroom environment.
- Oversee learners out of the classroom and during lunch breaks.
- Supervise group activities of learners and carry out administrative tasks as required by the school.
Through this initiative, young people have been of great assistance in making sure that the classroom is well prepared to allow teaching and learning to flow.
