Children’s Responsibilities in the era of Children’s Rights: Perspectives of South African Learners

Abstract This study explored grade 9 learners’ perceptions of how they were taking responsibility for selected rights they have as given in the Bill of Responsibilities for the youth of South Africa. The study draws from 16 semi-structured in-depth interviews with 8 boys and 8 girls aged between 13 and 15 years from two public high schools in Johannesburg, South Africa. All participants were purposively sampled. The main findings showed a general lack of responsibility towards rights. Using content data analysis, four themes that were identified were (1) responsibilities towards the environment, (2) respect for human dignity, (3) responsibilities towards education and (4) responsibility towards personal health and hygiene. I discuss the importance of teaching learners the link between rights and responsibilities and the impact of different systems in fostering positive development of children according to Bronfenbrenner.