Pandemic has left youth in the lurch

The ongoing pandemic is leaving an adverse effect on education, employment and mental condition of the country's youth population, adding a new form of disengagement to the youth cohort.

Moreover, the pandemic has brought the "digital divide" issue to the fore as one of the major indicators to identify who is more economically and socially "disengaged" and to what extent.

The issues were discussed at a virtual dialogue on "'Disengaged Youth' in Bangladesh: Who, Why and How?" organised jointly by Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh and UNDP Bangladesh on the occasion of International Youth Day 2021, said a press release of the platform.

Speakers at the event said the situation is even worse for those belonging to the lower-income tier.

In his remarks, Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, convener of Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh and Distinguished Fellow of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), stressed for exploring who belong to the disengaged community of youth and to what extent.

He emphasised exploring an effective solution besides the existing youth-centric institutions and policies that "have not yet been visibly successful in capturing the youth's aspirations and challenges in Bangladesh".

Sudipto Mukerjee, resident representative of UNDP Bangladesh, mentioned that the youth community needs to come forward to achieve responsible consumption and production.

He stressed the need for finding more innovative ways to accelerate efforts to address the skills and information gap, which have become more visible due to the pandemic.

TIB URGES VACCINATION OF STUDENTS ON PRIORITY BASIS

Meanwhile, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) yesterday called upon authorities concerned to inoculate students and relevant others with Covid-19 vaccine in shortest possible time and on priority basis to reopen educational institutions maintaining proper health guidelines.

On the occasion of World Youth Day, TIB placed a nine-point recommendation to overcome the "huge loss" in terms of education and employment that the country's youths had to incur amid the pandemic.

TIB said effective measures have to be taken through specific short-, medium- and long-term plan for the upgradation of all students to the next level after ensuring their evaluation process.

Besides, especial measure has to be taken to bring back dropped-out students to classrooms. Uninterrupted education has to be ensured for girls, children with disability, and students belonging to financially insolvent qwuarters, ethnic groups and left-behind communities by announcing special stimulus packages for them, said the anti-graft watchdog.

Although 16 months have passed since the announcement of the closure of educational institutions due to the pandemic in the country, it was not possible to take any combined and effective plan of action regarding their reopening, said TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman.

"Although there has been effort to conduct online classes, it was largely unsuccessful due to lack of technology-based skills as well as lack of uninterrupted power and internet services," he said.

Instead, this has created a new type of discrimination in the education sector, Iftekharuzzaman said, adding several researches have suggested that in rural areas 63 percent families don't have the option to use internet while 87 percent families are not skilled enough to use it.