My aspiration for the chairperson of the commonwealth youth council was inspired by my enthusiasm for youth development and my experience in the commonwealth youth programmes. It has been my personal ambition to contribute in any way possible toward enhancing effective youth participation in developmental issues. I have personally realised and appreciate the fact that young people are a force for peace, democracy, equality, and good governance; a catalyst for global consensus building; and an essential resource for sustainable development and poverty eradication, as such there is need for an effective youth leadership that will help in anchoring the voice and yearning of the youths especially in the commonwealth countries. Commonwealth youth council is one of the wonderful platforms through which youths can demonstrate their leadership capacities and channel their grievances. It is a platform for enlightening the youth on their roles in the society and supporting them in becoming active participants in making decisions that affect them. These motives cannot be achieved without a competent youth leadership in the commonwealth youth council, which is why I stand for the chairperson of the council to give my maximum contribution toward achieving these objectives and any other relevant youth development objective.
If elected as the chairperson of the commonwealth youth council, I will work closely with commonwealth youth countries’ ministers and their respective national youth leaders in ensuring adequate investment in youth especially in the area of education, entrepreneurship, agriculture, ICT, leadership, employment, and promotion of CYC image and commonwealth values. These will form my leadership’s points of priorities. My leadership will drive its strength and support from the commonwealth secretariat, commonwealth organizations, and other youth development partners, through which we will extend and reinforce meaningful youth development projects in order to strengthen the youth potentials and advance the values and objectives of the Commonwealth. I will make the council an easily accessible platform that will integrates the commonwealth young people and create the opportunity for sharing ideas and experiences, channelling complaints, and inspiring one another. This will be achieved through different modern electronic and social media (including youth TV), as well as annual regional and national youth assemblies/dialogue through which we will hear directly from the youths, and the youth will hear from us. This will shape our commitments toward the real yearning of the youths. Similarly, immediately after our inauguration, we will undertake a youth survey that will hear directly from the youth on what they think are their major issues of concerns and how they think it could be solved. This will serve as the bases for shaping or redefining our points of priorities.
My leadership’s 7 points priorities are discussed below:
1. EDUCATION: education is the bedrock for any meaningful development. It is through education that people’s ranks and positions in society are placed. The initial step of empowering young people is through Education. It is with this on our minds that we will set out the following line of actions to maximally tap the vast intellectual potentials of young people in the commonwealth so that they can be better citizens, employable and contribute to the developmental issues of their communities.
i. Special Educational Scholarships: Through the office of vice chairperson (Policy and Advocacy) the CYC will agitate for the creation of educational scholarships to less privileged, young women and physically challenged young people in every commonwealth member country. The recent Commonwealth Development Index have shown that most of developing countries in Africa and Asia are lagged behind in terms of quantity of young people in education and the level of quality education. Millions of intelligent young people are unwillingly out of school because they lack sponsorship. These young people are the future of the commonwealth, and we cannot afford to have illiterate future. Under our leadership, we will make sure that a transparent and fair educational sponsorship scheme is established or improved in countries where there is an existing similar scheme. The youth should be involve in the scheme, and there should be monitoring and evaluation youth task force for the scheme in every country, who will report to the CYC headquarters any progress, impact and weaknesses of the scheme. The scholarship scheme should cover all levels of education. This will not be taken lightly and serious campaigns, appeals and complains will be staged against any country that refuses to implement a generous scholarship for these special group of young people. I will make sure that a strategic plan for identifying these young people are put in place by the office of vice chairperson inclusion and engagement.
ii. EDUCATIONAL STRUCTURES AND FACILITIES: it was reported that in Kenya for example, 7 out of every 10 rural nursery schools don’t have access to blackboard (by sponsor a child Kenya Initiative). How many engineering schools do we have out there in many commonwealth countries without sufficient laboratory equipments? Talk more about the medical schools, how many people die due to inadequate medical experts who were poorly trained due to lack of teaching facilities. Providing scholarships is not enough without complementary funds allocation to provide these needed and necessary facilities and structures. To this effect, the CYC will make serious campaign and put pressure to the commonwealth countries to ensure better and improved budgetary allocations to improve the standards of educational schools/institutions in every commonwealth countries. For countries that have done well in the sector, a sustainable and improving plans shall be in place to further enhance the standards.
iii. YOUTH EDUCATION COMMITTEE: the CYC under our leadership will constitute education monitoring and evaluation committee in every level of youth leadership structure. The committee will undertake research on the problems and solutions of educations problems peculiar to every region and local community. The committee will be responsible for ensuring proper implementation of the CYC’s educational policy agitations, and reports any success or otherwise.
iv. CAMPAIGN FOR REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL CURRICULUM: as the world evolves dramatically, new challenges and societal expectations changes, leading to the need to acquire a suitable education that fits the new challenges. Certain youth’s potentials have not yet been accommodated in educational curriculum, which could be relevant to the modern world challenges. Youth research group will be sponsored in every commonwealth country to identify those potential modules that need review, either to scrap or to introduce new ones depending on the peculiar circumstances in the locality.
v. COLLABORATION WITH PARTNERS: in the beginning of our tenure, a youth survey will be conducted to hear more about the youths problems in education and what they think should be the solution. This will be followed with an articulated line of actions toward achieving that, and identifying the relevant partners apart from government that will invest in providing quality education to young men and women in Commonwealth Countries.
I will continue with the second point of priority tomorrow, meanwhile please read and advice me on how you think the quality of education can be improved for the commonwealth youth.
Thank you.
IF THE YOUTH WANT TO DO IT, THEN THEY CAN DO IT.
Vote Ahmed Adamu as CHAIRPERSON, Commonwealth Youth Council,
email: ahmedadamuforchairpersoncyc@yahoo.com
Phone: +447589710113.
facebook page: Ahmed Adamu for CYC Chairperson:http://www.facebook.com/groups/411366385630182/
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