LAST week I wrote about those importantly small significant attributes that can define us as individuals, a nation and as a people. This article was inspired by my dealing with a sector of the young population in the past few months.
Frankly I am afraid for the future of this country and I dread growing old in this society.
Our young people are busy, but busy doing what? If I confess to knowing why, I could not have told a greater lie. The one thing that I can confess though, without the shadow of a doubt, is that there is no shortage of talent among our youth. Last week I spoke about commitment and the art of prioritizing and re-prioritizing. These are abilities needed by all our people but more so, our young.
It has been said that our young people are not a problem to be had but a resource to be harnessed. The truth is though that a lot of our youngsters are not reading this. If they pick up a newspaper it will most likely be to see what vacancies are being advertised and that would be the extent of their reading. Our young people cannot just be reading for study, the joy and delight of reading must be an experience to be embraced so that they are feeding the emotion as well as their intellectual quotient.
A nation that does not read is a nation bereft of leaders for as the saying goes “Readers are leaders”. Our young people must come to appreciate time and its proper management and they must learn respect; respect of other people’s time and the resources that are invested into them. The discipline of punctuality is a habit that needs national impetus for inculcation into the psyche of our people, especially our youth. It is a point, from last week being reiterated in this article to drive the issue home to the Ministry of Social Transformation.
The attribute of proper time management is the quality that sets successful and unsuccessful people apart. Forgive me if it seems like I am regurgitating last week’s article but I hope the repetition pays dividends, so important I think is the message.
I have a lot of dissatisfaction with the Creative Arts ministry. Oh, the hope of an election campaign promise and many promises are about to be made again. It is the silly season. Let me restate that there is no shortage of talent among our youth but this integral ministry calls for creative thinkers, not paper pushers. You cannot ignite the fire of our young flames by sitting behind a desk and effecting policy upon policy. That is not the nature of this lucrative industry. Cut out the red tape and tap to the sound of the drum. The rhythm is different and our artistes as well as our bureaucrats have to learn the new dance or we will be left waltzing in our quagmire of inactivity and lack of innovation.
Very well stated /presented -difficult area of human development.
Perhaps a modified apprentice /national service framework with credits towards offsetting college or trade school tuition/materials costs.
And how about logistical dormitory especially for female college /trade school students that can be paid for under the above mentioned deferred credit or subsidized based on ongoing scholastic performance.
The above proposal is especially relevant towards increasing female participation i STEM curriculum/careers.
As a result we can export cadres of globally ready nurses/allied health practitioners (much like the Philippines) any where on the planet.
Have you checked out the pay scales in Alaska or Dubai? Think of the remittances as the gratitude of these students repay their national commitments.
Thanks for an interesting take on a difficult universal issue.