This week – Social Justice Assembly, International Day of Education and talk on the matric pass rate

Tuesday, 24 January, is the International Day of Education. Education is a human right, as well as a public good and responsibility, according to the United Nations (UN).

“The right to education is enshrined in article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration calls for free and compulsory elementary education. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989, goes further to stipulate that countries shall make higher education accessible to all,” it says.

About 244 million children and adolescents around the world are out of school, while 617 million cannot read or do basic maths.

“Without inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all, countries will not succeed in achieving gender equality and breaking the cycle of poverty that is leaving millions of children, youth and adults behind.”



On Tuesday, 24 January, at 10am, the official memorial service for Dr Frene Noshir Ginwala will be held at the Johannesburg City Hall on Helen Joseph Street.

Ginwala – a South African journalist and activist, and founding Speaker of South Africa’s democratic Parliament – died on 12 January.

“We mourn the passing of a formidable patriot and leader of our nation, and an internationalist to whom justice and democracy around the globe remained an impassioned objective to her last days,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa after Ginwala’s death.



On Tuesday at 6pm, Youth Capital is hosting a Twitter Space on “Beyond the matric pass rate”. The talk will unpack the matric pass rate, school dropout, the urgency around the matric rewrite, and the support young people need to write and pass final exams.

“A matric certificate increases the likelihood of young people’s ability to secure work, but only six in 10 learners who start school write their matric exams,” according to the event description.