Stage 5: Terminating interview session: This stage was an indication that the interview had come to an end, this is where the researcher made an indication by using phrases such as “in
4.4. FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWS
4.4.3. Thematic analysis discussion of focus group interviews
4.4.3.4. Theme 4: Significant challenges for post school youth
130 Van Breda, 2001: 31). Education is driven more at a family level than the community level when the personal attributes of youth are explored. According to Brendtro & Shahbazian, 2004:75 families with strong relations experience a sense of belonging, this boosts their morale and confidence to withstand challenges. Brendtro and Shahbazian (2004:75) terms this as a holistic therapeutic development facilitated by being decisive on the efforts to build the Circle of Courage. It was evident in the study that emotional support was present in the way families conducted themselves to contribute to the participants’ academic resilience.
Many families in Tembisa Township are dysfunctional, they struggle financially, there is high unemployment leading to financial strain. There is poor income and support towards children’s schooling and academic success. Social ills also affect families in Tembisa ranging from death and divorce, which causes a huge gap in the area of support for the youth. Death and divorce cause people to experience adversity and triggers the resilience process (Aberdeen Getting it Right, 2012: 52).
131 There are still issues with access to learnerships and scholarship funding in Tembisa TVET College as the waiting periods are unrealistic. P1 indicated that even at the college there is no clear criteria on who get funded by NFSAS, we are all made to wait in frustration as we get cut off the term and have to catch up on our own due to none payment.
Tembisa schools severely lack resources. P7 shared that there are primary schools, higher primary schools, high schools in our community but these are under resourced though they we make do of what is in the schools. P7 further indicated that this was why some of them were at the TVET College compared to the preference of a University, we get limited education. P5 added that there is a lot that is needed in the area of our community’s development as schools are under resourced and we have poor infrastructure.
Some teachers in the schools did not demonstrate diligence as they were demotivated. This presented as a challenge in the students’ academic success. P3 highlighted that some of our schools in township are a source of strength to socialise, feed from the feeding scheme and have teachers for support. The participant further indicated that other teachers did not do their job well as though they did not know what they were teaching; they were always absent and demotivated and did not initiate catch up classes to help learners with the completing the curricula.
The provision of food, when it was available, was strength to many youth in the study. P5 indicated our schools had feeding schemes helped us to cope since some of us only had that meal for a day which acted as a good motivation to be at school. P3 also expressed the schools feeding scheme as a support, where she indicated that we got feed from the feeding scheme at school.
There is lack of basic needs that was expressed through the interviews where the P3 mentioned that most of us do not have electricity. Sometimes we even do not have candles but we make a plan because we want to do well at school.
132 P2 expressed that the community faces many social ills. The participant indicated that there is a challenge with drugs, teenage pregnancy, gangs, rape, stealing, pressure, unemployment, crime and this clouds all of us youth as being irresponsible, good for nothing, non-visionary. The participant indicated that Tembisa has an urgent need for initiatives aimed at helping youth.
The community lacks role models and elders that can guide the youth. P1 expressed that there used to be retired teachers helping youth at the senior citizens club that also shut down due to being under resourced.
P7 indicated that in the community there is jealousy and expressed that people do not support you if you appear as successful within the community. P1 agreed to this and said the community is a united community as we share experiences of hardship; as the youth, we support one another but there is pulling down if the neighbours child is doing well, then elders fight and other even bewitch each other. .
P7 indicated a challenge with peer pressure as being a common factor that affects the youth. The participant said many of the youth from families here do not go to church though, they hang out in places of fun, party like kind of environments where they dance.
There is a challenge with support towards school from families. P1 indicated that as academic resilient youth, they are frustrated by the fact that the support towards education is not the same in their families as their parents and elders are unable to help because they did not go to school, they do not know how to help, and so the participants only get help from school teachers.
Interpretation of Theme 4
There are more challenges in Tembisa than an average suburb of South Africa. This can be interpreted as having negative impact on the academic performance the learners. The challenges surrounding youth are at all critical levels that impact on development such as at school, families and communities. This is concerning as these system should act as a buffers towards academic success. In the case of Tembisa, these conditions are causing strain and make surviving difficult.
133 There is a need for decisive efforts to fund education programmes through collaborations by government and private sectors that will provide opportunities for the youth. Lack of libraries and laboratories are negative towards academic resilience of youth. Funding models to support youth need to be developed in order to facilitate conducive learning environments. Teacher training issues need to be addressed so that there is alignment with the teaching of curricula that might have introduced after training degree this could be the reason for teacher absenteeism.
Some of the teachers are demotivated due to lack of resources and strain from teaching subjects that they did not qualify for at their training. Teachers were indicated as demotivated with some being absent for most of the teaching periods which presented as a challenge. Poor infrastructure affects Tembisa Township and development in youth of the township. Some youth resort to criminal activities to make living conditions manageable. There is a need for mentors and role models to guide the youth in Tembisa. There are issues in Tembisa with the affordability of critical services such as internet towards academic excellence. Another point causing vulnerability in Tembisa Township was parents’ illiteracy, which resulted in the youth having difficult lives as this made it impossible for families to support their children academically. Most youth thrive because they are self-driven and want to see their life circumstances changing.
There are so many youth who are involved in gangs, crime, teenage pregnancy and this cloud all youth as being irresponsible, good for nothing, non-visionary.
Discussion of Theme 4
The social ills presented by the post-school participants included easy access to drugs, teenage pregnancy, gangs amongst others and all the social ills in the Township. Lack of funding was highlighted as a challenge towards extra-mural activities in Tembisa schools, as well as the lack of functional libraries and lack of laboratories for science.Meichenbaum (2004:30) believes that resilience in learners who are from high risk communities should be nurtured. However, there remains a huge challenge faced by teachers who have the desire to nurture resilient behaviour, thus this requires urgent attention by all sectors. He further provides suggestions for the interventions which clearly indicate that funding should be attended to if the initiatives are to be a success as these need improved infrastructure, learning resources and support. Theron and Theron (2014:297) state that education is important to address challenges and facilitate the academic resilience processes and the adjustment of the youth to adversity. They indicated that
134 education funding is important as this was proven to provide important academic services to the learners. The services are teaching of the school curricular content that serves to provide basic academic skills such as writing and reading.
The discussions with the participants highlighted that there were financial strains in many sections of the Tembisa community. Poor financing is a common negative factor in most townships of South Africa. The government and other stakeholders ought to revitalise lives in the townships in order to make their lives better (Rakabe, 2016:34).Youth struggle with basic means to help in their academic ability and success.Normand (2007:67) identified the lack of resources as a major challenge that impacted negatively on the students’ abilities to achieve outstanding results in their school work.
The National Youth Policy, 2015:10 mentioned in chapter one of this study indicated that youth face multiple challenges in the township. These challenges are dropping-out of school, impoverishment, crime, unemployment, substance abuse, violence, teenage pregnancy, lack of resources, limited basic needs such as shelter, food and good education. These results in youth who struggle to cope, according to Guoxiu, Restrepo Henao, Theron and Vanderplaat (2015:7).
The challenges, shared by the participants in the interviews affect all ages, groups especially children and youth, all classes and gender in the community. The challenges are experienced at different contexts within the community: in families, schools, churches and the wider community ranging from unemployment to financial strain, under development and lack of resources.
There are a number of social ills affecting academic success in disadvantaged communities but as Normand (2007:27) points out, learners are expected to do well, as highlighted in the interviews. Townships are faced with the challenge of inequality, poor resources and poor distribution of resources towards disadvantaged communities (Rakabe, 2016:12; Williams, 2011). Some of the social ills in the community affect the schools’ functioning as the children and youth in these schools come from the traumatic experience of the same community. Theron and Theron (2014: 297) and Bernard (1997: 29) state that when communities are in need, there is survival of those who are fit and if research on resilient studies fails to use the strength based approach instead of focusing on deficit, communities will not understand the value of unity, support and hard effort towards making a difference in life challenging circumstances. Many
135 communities in South Africa have poor infrastructure and Tembisa is no exception (Rakabe, 2016:24; Normand, 2007:24; and Theron & Theron, 2014: 307). According to the focus group interviews, there is limited infrastructure in Tembisa as well as resources to contribute to holistic academic resilience and fruitful careers for the youth. The community of Tembisa lacks programmes to keep the youth focused and there is no proper orientation towards career paths.