Youth Policy to be considered on Thursday

A motion for the adoption of the long anticipated National Youth Policy is expected to be moved on Thursday in the National Assembly by Junior Education Minister Nicolette Henry.

The adoption of the policy will allow the Department of Culture, Youth and Sport within the Education Ministry along with its stakeholders, to carry out activities that target youth development.
The policy is centred on a framework of five strategic areas. These are to improve the social, emotional and cultural skills of young people; produce a productive and enterprising youth workforce; develop quality education and market oriented skills; encourage leadership, participation and representation; and promote good health, security and safety.

Earlier this year, President David Granger had announced that the policy would come on stream soon. The policy was laid in the National Assembly on June 30, 2016.
In August 2015, Presidential Adviser on Youth Empowerment Aubrey Norton had announced that the National Youth Policy draft had been completed and was awaiting review from President Granger and Education Minister, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine.

The National Youth Policy is supposed to be a comprehensive policy document that states the vision of the Government of Guyana for the youths of the country and also how this vision would be realised by the Government. The Policy caters for the needs of the youths in the age group of 15-35 years, which constitutes over 50 per cent of the population.
It also identifies the vision and the five key objectives that are further sub-divided into several priority areas for youth development. It further suggests policy imperatives that should be implemented in each of these identified priority areas.
The previous Administration had held numerous consultations on this initiative in an effort to finalise and subsequently implement the policy.