Youth Parliamentarians bemoan woes in the education system

The twelfth sitting of the National Youth Parliament of Jamaica was held on 31 January 2022 at Gordon House, Kingston, guided by the theme “Evolve”. The Government of Jamaica saw it fit to have youth parliamentarians as a way to gain fresh ideas and to provide a channel through which the youth can express themselves about the improvement of their communities for the betterment of Jamaica. 

Applications for National Youth Parliament opened on 22 November 2021 and will close, so far, 11 February 2022.  The Ministry of Education and Youth received 1,055 applications for National Youth Parliamentarian. Of this number, 102 young people were chosen – 51 males and 51 females, reported Hon. Fayval Williams, Minister of Education.

These youth were chosen based on their proven leadership abilities, activism, and public speaking skills and their interest in youth development. The House of Parliament has partnered with the Ministry of Education and Youth to stage this event. The young people were charged with the responsibility to speak on different topics that would foster youth development.

Before entering Parliament, the youth parliamentarians were prepped through workshops by the Human Employment and Resource Training Agency/National Training Agency (HEART/NSTA Trust). Novlette Denton-Prince, Acting Managing Director at HEART/NSTA Trust, advised that this was, ‘”to equip young persons with the right attitude, to generate high levels of social economic independence an integral factor to advance Jamaica”. A youth parliamentarian told the Jamaica Monitor that they were up practising in their workshops “up until 10:00 to 11:00 pm trying to get it right for the coming day”.

These young people were already involved in civic activities in their respective community groups or clubs and so they came with ideas for their counties: Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey. Hon. Fayval Williams, Minister of Education and Youth noted the projects executed by previous youth parliamentarians have “impacted over 9, 00 young people island wide”. 

Issues addressed by these youth parliamentarians included: marginalized youth, lack of education due to lack of devices and digital literacy among the ‘ghetto youts’. The mantra of the Minister of Education and Youth is that every child can learn, and every child must learn says Jozané Bryan, youth parliamentarian from Central Manchester. She continued, “the question really is, is every child learning?” and further added “dem nah learn nothing”. She recommended that “guidance counsellors, teachers and parents locate and track marginalized students’ performance in and out of school”.

Deshawn Cook, from north Trelawny added to the list of issues saying domestic violence and child abuse had been on the increase since the onset of COVID-19, “the home that should have been the haven is now the lion’s den… no weh no safe again”. Cook further added that over 1,000 allegations of sexual reports were made to the National Children’s Registry. He called for a launch of island wide sensitization called ‘FYI’ and the tracking of behaviours of people by intensifying awareness through schools and public places.