National strength through wholesome youth

It is gratifying to note that some of our foremost political leaders are focusing on the younger generation of this country as holding a vital key to a strong and united Sri Lanka. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has led from the front in this respect by not only establishing a ministry for youth affairs and vocational training, but by also showing ample readiness to accommodate some of our misguided youth in the national mainstream once again.

The persons we have in mind when we say this are the one-time LTTE cadres who have now been ‘Recalled to Life’ and given a precious second chance to put their lives right. In fact, many of them are indeed leading effective, fruitful lives, thanks to the state’s ongoing rehabilitation programme.

There was also Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne who recently lauded the National Cadet Corps for the pivotal role it plays in bringing out disciplined and self-sufficient youth who possess not only a military training but go on to acquire virtues, such as, friendliness, cooperation and respect for the opinions of others. There was also Youth Affairs and Skills Development Minister Dullas Alahapperuma who drew attention to the rigours and ill-effects of our primary and secondary education system which tends to stunt the development of some of our youth rather than help in bringing out the best in them.

Minister Alahapperuma told a recent forum which was held to celebrate Universal Children’s Day that the impossible is expected of our children at most public examinations. A child’s knowledge is believed to be ‘tested’ within a very short time limit at a written examination and those who cannot put down on paper their painstakingly stowed-up knowledge within the prescribed minutes, are considered failures and seen to be of no use generally. There is also the anomaly of a student passing in all subjects very impressively but ‘failing’ in mathematics, for instance, and being sidelined and thereby alienated for life almost, as a ‘failure’.

We are glad that these worrisome issues confronting our youth and children are being faced squarely by the authorities. We believe that narrow, public examination-linked criteria cannot be used to assess the full worth of members of the younger generation. On the contrary, every effort must be made to assess the inner strengths and talents of every young person very early in the latter’s life by schools and other relevant institutions and the futures of these persons moulded in such a way that these potentialities are put to very good use. This will result in happiness and contentment for both, the young persons concerned, as well as for the country. What should be avoided from now on is the imposition of rigorous and stifling methods to assess the true worth of individuals.

While all this and more must be done on a priority basis, we believe that it is also incumbent on the state to ensure that the best of domestic social environments are created for youths to enable them to thrive and be of use to the world. For instance, violence against children must be seen an end to. Nor must our children be exploited in other ways.

The state has launched a programme to inculcate in our undergraduate community a feel for national service and no one could quarrel with this project because the young of this land are duty bound to give back to the country of their birth what they have acquired from it in the form of a range of welfare benefits, including a free education. This project should be ongoing and we hope the necessary public awareness programmes will be designed and implemented to convey to the public the value of serving one’s land of birth.

All in all, what should be aimed at by the state are projects and programmes which would help to bring out the best in our youth and children. The bottom line is that no life could be dismissed as useless. We need to create in this country in increasing degrees, a life-affirming culture which would confirm the belief in each person that he and she is very much wanted here and valued.