Youth issues should be prioritised
M Selim Reza
Youths are the asset and changing force of any country. Youths played very important role in the history of Bangladesh. We achieved making Bangla our national language through the sacrifice of our youths in 1952. Youths also made great contributions in the Liberation War of 1971.But who are youths? Many organisations define youth differently in terms of age. The United Nations recognises 15-24 years as youth, while Commonwealth defines the age as 15-29. And current Bangladesh youth policy defines 18-35 years as youth. Youths make up one-third of the total population and half of the workforce in Bangladesh. The country can make great achievement if it can make the best use of these human resources.
Youth population of Bangladesh is increasing at a speedy rate. Different youth issues, such as education, health, employment, training, environment, amusement, sports, and technology should be improved for the betterment of Bangladeshi youths.The government cannot provide employment for this huge workforce alone. It will be quite impossible for the public sector to cope with rising youth unemployment. Private sector may also not be able to meet the increasing demand. Entrepreneurship may be the solution to this problem.
Youths are becoming interested in the idea of entrepreneurship. But sometimes, they lack the funds for their startup businesses, while sometimes they cannot understand where to make the best investment. The government should help the young entrepreneurs with their startup ventures, with training and funding.
In some cases, highly educated youths are becoming more unemployed than little educated youths. The most important thing in this regard is making the youth force skilled for various positions. The national youth training centre should provide training for unskilled youths on a wider scale.
A new curriculum for employment can be included in textbooks so students can familiarise themselves with the employment world. The labour market or employment skill is different from mainstream education. Special initiatives should be taken to familiarise youths with employment skills at different levels.
Youths should be made morally conscious against corruption and other malpractices in the society. Underprivileged youths should be given priority, as well as those in the remotest areas who get little opportunity to improve themselves. Different youth organisations should be recognised by the governments youth department.
The discrimination between different education systems should be removed as some section of the society thinks that madrasah education produces radicalism, while others think that English-medium students are not patriotic. Neither is true. All youths are patriotic and no discrimination among the education groups should be made. The writer is a student of the Department of Public Administration, Jahangirnagar University.
