Needed: leadership training for youth

YOUTH: Sri Lanka is currently facing a serious problem of youth incivility. Cabinet last week granted approval to a Memo submitted by Cultural Affairs and National Heritage Minister on a national programme for building a disciplined society - Yavuwandoya.

"How did it happen," many parents seem to ask. One thing is certain. We, as elders, have lost our ability to tap and harness the immense potentials of our youth for productive and positive results. A lot of lapses have been identified in our schooling process in its lack of capacity to make the desired impact on the lives of the young people.

In recent times, our homes too have been found to be very ineffective in their conventional roles as agents of socialization. Parents have become increasingly indifferent and irresponsible in the proper upbringing of their children. They have not done enough to positively occupy the minds of the youth to the extent that most of them have derailed and veered off the path of moral decency.

With the growing complexity of society a breakdown of traditional community values has become visible. The ordered way of life of say half a century ago depended to a great extent on social control.

The task of the police-force was facilitated by the cooperation of the community. Former values had their roots in religious morals. In our country it was Buddhism that laid down a generally accepted conduct of living based on a distinction between what was considered good and evil. Most other religions like Christianity, Hinduism and Islam have similar codes.

"Modern" education has made a greater number of people look at life through scientific instead of religious spectacles. Religious dogmas have become questioned and with it temple/church-attendance has decreased drastically. Religion has made way for an easy agnosticism and indifference.

With it community values crumbled. Young people are not automatically instilled with civic consciousness either at home or at school. Instead they have been taught to question them and resist pressure from outdated social hierarchical structures. This process dates from the late sixties when leftist views became fashionable amongst the intellectual elite that strongly influenced the media.

In the wake of this kind of cynical approach towards life the feeling of togetherness has diminished in spite of appeals to 'solidarity'. Fact is that the threshold separating youngsters from crime and cruelty towards fellow-beings has been lowered in the last decades.

The loss of vision of a nation cannot but have repercussions in all divisions. In the past citizens might have been divided according to their religious affiliations, yet their outlook fitted into a broad pattern. Now that the foundations of conscience have been rocked there is no controlling factor left besides the law.

Education does not instil in children a sense of being involved in a great adventure anymore calling for courage and responsibility. It does not emphasize spiritual values. Young uninformed minds may conclude cynically: "Life ends at the grave", "live for the moment as there is no accounting for one's deeds", "the clever ones inherit the earth".

There are no transcendental values left because these have never been proven scientifically. The view that our lives may have a far greater reach than we can imagine is considered outmoded. So are spiritual values and a grand vision for mankind and its place in the universe. In the materialistic outlook of modern science morality and responsibility have no actual foundation. Why should one observe these values if life ends at the grave?

Apparently the only cause that can rally a nation now is catastrophe, terrorism and war.

Our concern today, therefore, should be to fill the gaps by exposing the youth to appropriate learning experiences and activities that help to raise their civic consciousness for effective relationships in the society. In fact, this is part of what citizenship education is about.

What we urgently need today are out-of-school citizenship education programmes on the moral values of Sri Lankan youth. I believe the programme should be based on three important factors: What are the appropriate social values and attributes expected of our youth? What is the importance of civic responsibility in the society? How should they display desirable social values and attributes?

The programme can be aimed at providing answers to these questions as a means of mobilizing the youth for civic responsibility.

At the end of the study, if our youth understand that Sri Lanka is a decent and civilized society and expects them to sustain these decency and civilization, we have got it right. To do so, we must train them to cultivate some basic values like (a) honesty (b) obedience (c) orderliness (d) patience (e) tolerance (f) sincerity (g) hard work (l) loyalty (j) patriotism (k) respectfulness (l) sympathy (m) fairness (n) decency.

No society can make progress when the citizens are lawless, hostile, intolerant, dishonest and destructive. Rather, the society needs an atmosphere of discipline, security, peace, unity and tolerance to be able to plan and executive development projects.

The greatest contribution the youth are expected to make is to demonstrate high level of civic responsibility. This is one of the ways they can make the country to be proud of them.