Youths demand quality education, job opportunities in MDGs

In prelude to the adoption of the post-2015 United Nations Development Agenda later this year, and in a bid to help the UN adopt an inclusive agenda, the co-founders of Building Bridges, Jilt Van Schayik and Teun Meulepas have been crisscrossing some 22 countries of the world to find out the concerns and priorities of the youths, which they want to be included in the final document.

“Building Bridges is all about bridging the gap between young people and policy makers, especially the UN. This year, the UN will adopt a new agenda, the post-2015 UN Development Agenda and we think that this agenda should be inclusive in that world leaders should listen to the worries, concerns and opinions of young people and for these concerns be taken into consideration and represented in the final document that will be adopted,” Van Schayik stated.

After the Netherlands and Cape Town in South Africa, Van Schayik and Teun Meulepas were recently in Buea, Cameroon, where, in partnership with Educate a Child in Africa, ECA, organised a one-day conference at the University of Buea.

The one-day conference, which was hinged on the theme: The importance of quality education in the fight against poverty in Cameroon, was aimed at capturing the priorities of youths in Cameroon, which they want to be represented in the UN post-2015 Development Agenda.

Speaking at the conference, the Youth Ambassador for Building Bridges in Cameroon, Gideon Asaah, who doubles as Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of ECA, said, before the UB conference, ECA carried out a survey research titled: My World Survey to capture the views of young people on the world they want.

According to him, the youths were asked to choose six out of the16 options of what can make life better for them and their families.

Of the1,600 respondents drawn from the 10 Regions of Cameroon, most of them said quality education, job opportunities, access to clean water and sanitation, better transport and roads network, better healthcare facilities and an honest and responsive Government, can make life worthwhile for them and their families.

It was in this perspective that stakeholders at the seminar were unanimous that education should be professionalised, talents encouraged, specialisation promoted, bribery and corruption shunned, financial impropriety addressed and creativity and output valued, not mouth-watering certificates.

In a stage presentation, the God Given Idiots of the University of Buea ridiculed the Cameroon educational system and said it is over-burdened with theoretical work, with little or no practical skills. Such a system, they said, only churns out job seekers and not job creators.

According to participants, in order to revamp the Cameroon educational system, attention should be paid on the professionalisation of education.

Speaking to The Post after the conference, Teun Maleupas, one of the Co-Founders of BB, said the cry for the professionalisation of educational systems is recurrent in all the African countries they have visited.

He urged the Governments of these countries to pay attention to the worries of the youths and professionalise their educational systems in order to reduce unemployment and improve on the standards of living of the citizens.

In order to achieve this, Maleupas went on, practical education and entrepreneurship must be encouraged in Africa in general and Cameroon in particular.

Van Schayik averred: “If I was placed in a position to suggest what needs to be done, I will tell lawmakers not only to refer to youths as the leaders of tomorrow, but to involve them in the decision-making process, because, the youths are in a better position to tell the leaders what they want.”

It should be noted that ECA is a non-profit and non-Governmental Organisation that advocates the education and wellbeing of children in Africa.

It uses non-formal education and the media to inspire a passion for consequential formal education in children in Africa.