The Communique Team works hard to write and present the participants' consensus
Introduction
A team of Cambridgeshire participants worked with Deputy-Secretary General, Mark Wager to summarise all of the key points that delegates raised during the Summit debates.
The resulting Communique - or declaration - was passed unanimously by those in attendance and presented to Councillor Sir Peter Brown, Cabinet Member for Communities and Councillor for Huntingdon.
You can read the Cambridgeshire Youth Summit Communiqué in full here or download it by clicking the tab on the right.
Education
Heads of Governments assembled here today have discussed various educational issues that are hampering the progress of education for all. It has been sighted that a class divide in nations needs to be addressed. Families do not have incentive and funds to send their children to school. In some cases children are an economic asset so while the children are in school they are not earning money for the family. This is despite education being compulsory in some African nations. Some delegates suggested the need for academic education is not recognised by students or their parents and therefore they may not find it necessary to attend. The relationship between health and education has been expressed. Women do not always have access to education and this affects literacy rates in some countries.
Another important issue is the lack of manpower to meet the demands of education in the said countries; there is a serious shortage of teachers and equipment for jobs to be carried out effectively. Crime on the streets and civil unrest has also been sighted as hampering school attendance and development in general. It was noted that school children can be recruited into criminal activity.
In more developed nations, truancy has been identified as a major development issue. The recent financial crisis leading to cuts may exclude many young people from having access to higher education. For the majority of countries access to higher education is not as big a concern as access to primary and secondary education.
Proposals
It has been suggested that encouraging different cultures to focus on gender equality within education would address the gender disparity facing many nations.
It was noted that there is a shortage of educational resources across the Commonwealth, in terms of both teaching resources and general funding levels. Nations agreed that trade and aid are crucial to increasing educational development. Nations agreed that they should strive towards self sufficiency and that aid should be distributed as a last resort. Education can be in the form of vocational training or apprenticeships for children for them to be able to apply themselves later on in life.
It was suggested that bringing in teachers from more developed nations may not work as the pay being offered would not be enough incentive for them to leave their home country. A way to overcome this problem is to establish partnership programs between developing and more developed nations in the way of sharing knowledge, exchanging teachers and students. This would allow everyone to learn from their experiences.
There was a discussion about the role for charities in working to improve educational development across the Commonwealth. There was some debate on the merits of allowing religious institutions/charities to lead on this. Charities can focus on distributing resources across the Commonwealth.
World Healthcare
Heads of nations have noted that there is unequal health provision across the Commonwealth. Some governments stated that there is a shortage of healthcare staff and medical facilities to deal with the volume of patients. Many states expressed that they lacked an organised healthcare system and wanted to create a free national healthcare system being in order to tackle mortality rates.
Delegates recognised that there is a correlation between education and health. Raising awareness of infectious diseases and how they can be combated would lower the health issues many nations face.
The issue of drug abuse was raised and it was widely recognised to be a problem in certain countries within the Commonwealth.
Proposals
Travelling medical provision was deemed to be an interesting solution to countries with a sparse population as it would reduce the number of people having to travel long distances to access medical facilities.
A specialist clinic should be set up separately for people with disabilities and this is an area often neglected.
There was much discussion concerning high costs of drugs. There were numerous schemes/suggestions made to tackle these costs. However no firm agreement on any was reached. It was agreed more discussion in this area was needed.
NGOs and charities should work closer with government departments in their efforts to improve healthcare provision. There is a desire by some nations to work with NGOs in the distribution of drugs. Efforts to tackle Malaria were highlighted as being particularly successful. It was also important for NGOs and charities to raise awareness of infectious diseases as it was deemed that knowledge would result in decreased infection rates.
It was suggested that there was a need to explore the opportunity for medical professional exchange.
Have Your Say…
There was consensus about the need to discuss transport and tuition fees.
It was said that education has always been seen as a progressive step in young people's development. The majority (but not all) of the delegates felt the government changes of increasing tuition fees are excluding a large population of young people, the class division will widen and in some cases these young people are the first in their families to pursue degrees.
Some members, not all, felt higher education may not be necessary if you can gain the same experience through your line of work. It was agreed more information was needed about the changes to tuition fees so that young people are more informed.
It was widely agreed that media representation of young people was offensive. The statistics reported in the media could be flawed and there were questions about validity or sources of this information. It was also noted that the media may not be giving equal representation to important issues, like developments unfolding in Bahrain.
Locally there was a focus upon the gradual increase in price of public transport, which is owned by private sector companies. Privatisation and our dependence on oil could be contributing factors to an increase in prices.
Proposals
There is a need for a wide range of people in different fields to make up the big society. The government should assess what jobs are most necessary, and get funding from other organisations. More focus should be on people who avoid paying taxes.
The severity of the cuts should not be in education.
It was noted that young people are currently rather limited in their ability to represent their views. It was suggested that one method of making oneself heard would be to join national marches and protests. There was a call for government to involve young people in consultation before and throughout the decision making process. This would enable young people's very important concerns and considerations to be heard.
Presently primary and secondary education is free, but public transport for young people under 18 should be made free. There was a call for public transport to be re-nationalised.
It was agreed that more discussion needs to take place in order to change the media's portrayal of young people.