Study calls for developing laws to serve youth [Archives:2006/925/Business & Economy]
A study prepared by a Yemeni researcher says there is apparent social and economic misery prevalent among Yemeni youths. The misery is embodied by high rates of school truancy, child labor, family violence, crime and addiction to drugs and alcohol.
An academic study says Yemeni youth are a force groaning under the unemployment market whereas youth in Gulf Cooperation Council states live in a stable environment providing a dignified and secure life. There they find means of honorable living and a secure climate to establish family life as an essential cell in building society for self-realization and respectable social status.
The study further indicates that Yemeni youth need feelings of safety, affiliation and necessary potential to push them toward participating in determining society's different needs. Additionally, they need such feelings to contribute actively to building society and its stability through various institutions, as well as contribute to social services and consolidating civilization and national and popular heritage.
According to the study, Yemeni youth live in an unstable environment, troubled circumstances and deteriorated situations with regard to health care, education, housing, human services, etc. Economic, political and social changes further constitute great challenges to Yemen's young generation. The situation doubles the possibility of tension and confusion youth experience when they advance from teenagers to adulthood.
The study prepared by Yemeni researcher Abdulbasit Saif mentions that economic and social misery is very obvious among Yemeni youth, as evident in large proportions of them leaving school, child labor, crime and practicing habits of taking drugs and drinking alcohol.
The study says sociologists confirm that such aspects are signs denoting that some youth need means to escape pressures of life and a sense of the loss of certainty. On the contrary, Yemeni female youths are characterized by strong competition with male youths in areas of education, training and developing their educational and cultural capabilities. When Yemeni youth discuss their important issues, they continually express a chain of common concerns and expectations, regardless of their age, education level or domicile.
The study recommends creating opportunities for youth contributions and new leadership, not confining cooperative work to certain groups or segments, and encouraging competitive work among them. It also recommended developing legislation and laws regulating youth work and guaranteeing creating real opportunities for youth participation in making social work-related decisions. It asked to find special youth projects aimed at nurturing a spirit of affiliation and initiation among them. In this respect, media play a bigger role in calling youth to active and effective participation in leadership, which is the rudder of change.
Social specialists believe a change has emerged in recent years in studying youth tendencies of both sexes, attributing it to political and economic changes Yemen has witnessed. Such changes opened wide the way for youth to enter all fields of work and specialization, including those exclusive to male youths.
This issue has been the subject of specialists at the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training. Thus, it has prepared a field study to explore common educational tendencies among girls. Results revealed that a large proportion of female students tend toward handmade professions and some modern specialties.
A questionnaire included 26 artworks and technical specialties, mainly fine arts, coiffure, handicrafts, housekeeping, food industries, secretarial work, accounting, public relations, computers, laboratories and electronic apparatus maintenance. The questionnaire revealed that females prefer secretarial work by 13 percent, 11 percent for accounting, 10 percent for sewing, embroidery, health and nursing, followed by public relations, computers and electronic equipment maintenance at 9.44 percent. The general commercial field, handicrafts and coiffure represented 6 percent, the study found, while 15.42 percent of the questionnaire sample expressed that they did not desire enrolling in technical education.
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