Youth Ministry commits to Ghana YMCA youth development
The Ghana Ministry for Youth and Sports committed to working closely with the Ghana YMCA, when they met with a 12-person youth delegation last week.
Led by Reginald Ffoulkes Crabbe, Greater Accra Regional Secretary of the Ghana YMCA, the YMCA delegation met with Hon. Nii Nortey Dua, Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports, Alhaji Abudulai Yakubu, Chief Director, Kofi Aggrey, PRO, and other officials on 2 September 2009.
“Even though the youth is largely represented numerically on our continent, they have still remained voiceless and invisible. They have not been granted any meaningful space and voice in both the economical and political spheres. As a result, they have been relegated to a place best described as that of subjects and less of citizens,” said Reginald in his presentation. Reginald represented Prosper Hoeyi, the National General Secretary of the Ghana YMCA.
He explained that this has made the youth easy targets for 'bandit politicians' who see the youth as a commodity to be picked up via a little financial influence as and when needed for use in the perpetration of human rights abuses and saddening acts of socio-political vindictiveness.
“This strengthens our confidence as an organisation to enhance the civic competence of young people. A concept developed by the Africa Alliance of YMCAs dubbed 'From Subject to Citizen' is currently being rolled out in the various national movements, including Ghana. This was what informed our National Youth Convention this year in Prampram under the theme 'Building the civic competence of the youth - a prerequisite for societal transformation,'” he said.
It was through the participation of Minister for Youth and Sports, Hon Rashid Pelpuo, at the National Youth Convention that the Ghana YMCA has now forged close links with the Ministry. During a meeting with the Minister in late August, he requested the presentation to his Ministry and the handing over of a communiqué on youth issues.
Reginald urged the ministry, relevant state institutions and stakeholders to take a critical look at the recommendations as contained in the communiqué and act promptly were necessary.
Ghana YMCA Youth President, Harold Obeng Yeboah, presented the communiqué to the Ministry, a copy of which is available on the Africa Alliance website – please click to access.
The Deputy Minister congratulated the YMCA on the presentation and communiqué. Making reference to last year's Youth Convention theme on the role of youth in curbing the effects of global warming, he called on other youth organisations to engage more youth on this issue and encouraged the Ghana YMCA to continue. Commenting on this year's theme and the civic competence concept, he said it called for “total education” and invited the Ghana YMCA to develop a clear model for implementation.
Prioritised recommendations of the Ghana YMCA communiqué include:
• That government should possibly look at a policy to integrate civic education in the curriculum of both first and second cycle institutions.
• That priority and appreciable consideration be given to government provision for Technical and Vocational Training Programmes in the youth policy.
• That the structures of the National Youth Council should be strengthened and adequately resourced to enable the council identify with its core functions.
• Since religion and spirituality have a strong link with morality and ethical behaviour of an individual, religious and moral education should not be diminished but rather given more space and attention in the school curriculum at the basic and secondary levels.
• Government should create an educational attachment scheme such that industry is somehow 'compelled' to take on students from both secondary and tertiary for vacation jobs in their respective study areas of pursuit.
• Fully recognise the important role that sports can play in helping to promote social development as well as addressing the exclusion of disadvantaged groups in society. In this context, government should provide sports infrastructure in the various communities to enhance accessibility to such needful facilities by the citizenry.
The Deputy Minister welcomed these recommendations. In response to civic education, he commented that 20-30 years ago, this was part of the school curriculum and said this will be given critical consideration by government. On strengthening the structures of the National Youth Council, he said introduction of transformative courses in all training centres is on the cards. He also said that the draft Youth Policy was under discussion at Council level and this will soon come before Cabinet and be billed before Parliament to be passed into Act. Regarding sports infrastructure, the Deputy Minister said government planned to build 10 multi-purpose sports courts throughout the country.
The communiqué highlighted women: “We also recognise the need to promote the role of women in social and economic development, by ensuring their participation in the political and economic life of the country.”
The Deputy Minister responded that the government had prioritised the participation of women in the current administration, as evidenced by the number of women in government now. He then referred to the Gender Responsibility Budget, a newly introduced system taking cognisance of women-related issues in Ghana.
Ghana / Africa / Modernghana.com