Young people should have access to affordable, youth-friendly and accessible education and training opportunities.


What is the situation?      

Young people living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods:

  • May experience a number of difficulties in exercising their right to education and fulfilling their educational potential.
  • Are at risk of low educational attainment or educational failure.
  • May face difficulties in physically accessing school, colleges, or other places of learning.
     

 


What should public authorities do?

  • Invest in education in disadvantaged communities from pre-school through to third-level.
  • Ensure that local educational budgets are gender sensitive[JM1]  and the needs of minority groups. Education spending should allow young people to have equal access and enjoyment of education.
  • Update existing curricula so as to take account of the specific needs of young people in accessing the jobs market and in beginning their working life.
  • Make vocational and skills training more interesting and relevant for those young people who are not used to formal study methods.
  • Improve career and vocational guidance[JM2]  in schools.
  • Ensure access to education for the most disadvantaged young people[JM3] , whose families may find access to education unaffordable. This could be achieved by providing additional financial support for books, clothing, meals, or transport.
  • Have procedures in place so that schools, teachers and other staff can be alert to the problems that impact on young people’s education, including learning, social, cultural and mobility difficulties. Put into action measures to ensure that such problems are addressed in good time.
  • Put in place ‘second-chance education[JM4] ’ opportunities for early school leavers who are anxious to return to education and/or access vocational training. These should include non-formal education [JM5] programmes designed to build self-confidence and entrepreneurship skills.
  • Promote non-formal education [JM6] programmes in co-operation with schools, youth organisations and youth workers, so as to develop life-long learning [JM7] strategies where the educational needs of young people are central.
  • Include courses on democratic citizenship and human rights, particularly for first and second level students
  • Have procedures in place to ensure that schools, colleges and other educational centres are safe, and free from bullying, discrimination, harassment – including sexual harassment – and all forms of violence.
  • Provide information to promote good health practices among young people, including healthy nutrition and sexual education.
  • Develop school communities that include the participation of elected student representatives in decision-making.
  • Include modules in teacher-training programmes on working with young people and with their specific concerns such as:
    • Social problems
    • Social identity
    • Intercultural issues
    • Gender equality
  • Develop partnerships between schools, youth workers[JM8] , and other professionals working in disadvantaged neighbourhoods to deliver training programmes.
  • Facilitate students to move between different learning experiences, such as formal and non-formal education [JM9] programmes.  Qualifications and skills acquired through all the different forms of education should be recognised and certified.
  • Ensure that education strategies and policies take account of the needs of young people whose families have a nomadic, semi-nomadic lifestyle or who are refugees or asylum-seekers.

 


Examples from the Enter! Project

A project developed by an organisation called CATCH-22 in the United Kingdom worked on changing the way that young people feel about their school environment and to encourage them to be more engaged in school life. The project supported the creation of a school environment where the young people felt fully respected, valued and accepted. A group of young people who were at risk of being excluded from their school, parents, and schoolteachers were involved in the project which involved the young people reviewing the school behavioural policy and delivering peer-to-peer training.

In Azerbaijan an organisation called Human Rights in the XXI Century worked with 14-18 year olds who had been abandoned by their parents and brought up in an orphanage. The project supported these young people to integrate into society. The young people participated in training programmes that increased their knowledge about their social rights in areas such as housing, health, education, employment, legal and social protection, mobility rights, and non-discrimination. A round table discussion and press conference was held, at which the young people spoke with politicians, public officials, the media and civil society. By learning about these rights and communicating with decision makers, the young people increased their self-esteem, confidence and ability to express their opinion about youth policy. At the same time, decision makers learnt about the particular challenges facing young people leaving care.

Canal Communities Regional Youth Service based in Ireland worked with a group of 17-21 year olds from Dublin who were volunteering as youth leaders in their local community and who wanted to develop skills and knowledge to become youth workers. The project, ‘An Issue for YOUth’ supported participants to learn about their social rights (especially housing, education and non-discrimination), and to understand the difficulties that young people in different parts of the world have in accessing the same rights. The participants undertook a two week volunteering and study visit to Tanzania where they worked to improve the facilities in a local school, teach English, organise non-formal educational activities and visit social projects, including an HIV campaign set up by local women. Through participation in the project the young people shared their experiences of growing up in a disadvantaged community in Dublin and learnt about the challenges facing young people in Tanzania.