How the Gem Project is Fighting the Dropout Crisis

Photo Credit: Supplied by Full Stop Communications

The Gem Project is fighting to get young people off the streets and back in the classroom and on the right track to securing a bright future.

Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa (24 February 2026) – A third of young people are starting school but not seeing it all the way through to successfully complete matric – a sobering reality confirmed by the Department of Basic Education in its 2025 National Senior Certificate Examination Report. It is a crisis that the Gem Project is tackling head-on.

The Gem Project, which began life in 2015 primarily as a soup kitchen in Nelson Mandela Bay, is now fronting up to the reality that 30 to 40% of learners who register for high school but do not make it to matric. Even more damning is that only 49% of 2023’s Grade 10 pupils reached Grade 12 in 2025.

“You see these kids standing at traffic lights, and you think, ‘Why aren’t they in school?’, says Keith Brandt, Gem Project programme coordinator.

He shares that some are as young as 12 years old – a concern the organisation is working to change.

The Project’s Finding Your Feet programme is mentally preparing Grade 7 learners for high school and what will be expected of them. More than 20 Bay primary schools in areas such as Walmer, Seaview, Gelvandale, Jacksonville and Zwide are currently participating in the initiative.

Brandt, together with his colleague Ellen Khumula and members of the NGO’s community development team, visits these institutions every May and August, reaching a combined 2,400 learners.

The former teacher and his colleagues are also focusing on older teens who might have already dropped out of school. By putting this cohort through skills development programmes, they are preparing youngsters for the working world and teaching them how to draw up CVs and be effective in interviews.

The Project partners with companies that consider these candidates for opportunities when these arise. Furthermore, learnerships and internships are offered by several service providers that the organisation works with.

Brandt feels that even those who have passed Grade 12 would benefit from these sessions.

“You see all these matriculants rejoicing when they pass, but the next year they’re sitting at home because they have no idea what to do next,” he said.

“They don’t even have the skills to apply for university. This is where we are lacking in our current education system.”

Gem’s commitment to the development of young people doesn’t stop there. Mentoring programmes and holiday camps run in tandem with tertiary institutions like Varsity College seek to improve performance in subjects like maths while also teaching the children life skills. As a mark of the success of these initiatives, four members of the community team are mentees of the Project.

Six years ago, the organisation started its Gem Soccer League to enable youngsters from several children’s homes to play the Beautiful Game. Its seven soup kitchens across the metro continue, and these are supplemented with food-garden projects.

The Gem Project recently received a much-needed shot in the arm in the form of a R75,000 donation from SPAR Eastern Cape as a beneficiary of its annual golf day at the Port Elizabeth Golf Club.