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Youths are the nation’s future

May 28, 2015 Editorial

In Guyana, youths are disproportionately affected by poverty, crime and violence. The quality of education as well as the limited opportunities available for entrepreneurship, skills building and employment is also not easily available to the young.
This social and economic malaise is exacerbated for youths who are among the poorest and those living in the rural areas of the country. Frustrated and fed-up with their plight, a number of youths have indicated their desire to migrate to the Caribbean and elsewhere.  Now is the perfect opportunity for the David Granger led-Government to renew trust and confidence in the youth and to convey to them that their issues matter and that the government is committed to addressing and finding solutions for them.
The newly elected coalition government must reaffirm its commitment to invest in youths and to improve their conditions. It must allocate the necessary resources to support them considering it costs more to lock them up in prison. The fact that resources are scarce, there is evidence that social interventions are desirable and are a better long-term solutions for youths affected by the system.
This presents an excellent opportunity for this government to work with youths to establish a youth organization similar to the Youth Core to address their problems and to facilitate their development to function effectively in society. It must focus on education, training, employment, entrepreneurship and empowerment with the overarching goal to foster a culture of positive development and their participation in the decision-making process on issues affecting their lives.
The most valuable asset for the future economic and social development of the country is its young people. Regrettably, that asset is going to waste by inadequate education, migration and high unemployment. Youth unemployment has reached crisis proportions in Guyana due to the adverse impact of the economy. This has severely constrained the capacity of the government to stimulate economic growth and create employment.
The World Bank reports that between 2007 and 2013 youth unemployment in Guyana was approaching 50 percent which is twice the normal unemployment rate. The main factor that accounts for this wastage of the youths’ assets is their lack of skills and poor education. Even more worrying is that enrolment rates in secondary schools is only 80 per cent on average and enrolment in post-secondary education is ridiculously below 15 per cent.
Youth unemployment can lead to low morale, erosion of discipline, deterioration of knowledge and if the Granger led-Coalition government does not act, it could result in their involvement in crime and violence.
Youths are critical to the country’s economic development. With such a large portion of the country’s youth being unskilled, uneducated and unemployed and the loss of skilled, educated youth through migration, it is perhaps a gross understatement to say that if this trend is not reversed quickly, the future will be bleak for Guyana.
Youths believe that they are being constantly marginalized and disregarded, of being spoken to but not listened to, and that the education system is failing them.  They are told that having a secondary education, doors will open for them to obtain jobs but the doors remain shut. Today, youths with tertiary education are without jobs and they have not had the option of training in anything else that is trade related or entrepreneurial.
This cruelty had existed for a long time under the previous government but the youths are hopeful that the election of the APNU+AFC Coalition government will end this cruelty by enacting radical, new and innovative policies and programmes that will ameliorate their situation.
Investing in young people is one of the wisest things for this government to do because today, youths are the most educated generation ever. However, there is a need to create free and fair opportunity for them; but will it happen; only time will tell.
Centuries ago a philosopher said that the foundation of every state is the education of its youth.

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