The pandemic crisis has brought to the surface all the shortcomings faced by young people, ie young people do not have the opportunity to oppose the system that discriminates against them. Young people are facing a mental crisis, and most young people are careful what they say, because they are afraid of being labeled… these are some of the views of several young people that we convey in this issue of SCAN.
Stefani Spirovska from the Youth Education Forum says that it is one thing to talk about the youth in Europe, and it is another to talk about the youth here.
“In European countries, young people are considered to be up to 29 years old, who after completing their education become independent, find a job and become independent, while in our country young people later become independent, ie even after 30 years they still live with their parents, do not have their own home and do not have a secure job.
The crisis with the pandemic brought to the surface all the shortcomings faced by young people, for example we saw how fragile our education is, for years we have youth unemployment, according to the Ministry of Culture, about 14 thousand young people lost their jobs as consequence of the crisis. “Also, a large number of young people are not employed by profession, but are employed where they will find work, and going abroad is one of those reasons,” said Spirovska.
She says that when making decisions for young people, young people with disabilities, with impaired vision and hearing, young people from rural areas should be taken into account because the crisis has affected them the most.
“We had delayed digitalization in higher education, while in secondary education there was a lack of people to listen to young people facing challenges, ie whether they have access to the system, whether they have psychologists and whether they know where to turn,” said Spirovska.
Borjan Efremov, President of the University Student Assembly of UKIM said that young people in normal conditions faced problems, especially students, and even greater problems faced during the pandemic.
He added that on February 15 he expects that there will be a digital learning platform, and he hopes that things will improve in terms of administration, because he sees that there is a movement of the new leadership of the Ministry of Education and Science.
“Systemic oppression works to cripple you to the point where you can not say you are oppressed. “Young people do not have the opportunity to oppose the system that discriminates against them,” Efremov said.
CIVIL Media journalist Angela Petrovska says that the media cover very little topics that affect young people, except when a law on youth is passed. She says the biggest problem for young people is finances, because we have a high unemployment rate, and they do not have much choice for work. In terms of education, he says there is a lack of practical work, for example journalism students study unnecessary subjects instead of having more internships.
Ermin Klimenta, web developer at ELAMI, says he was not affected by the corona crisis because he worked from home anyway.
“The mental state of young people has changed. When you work at home and when you have a deadline then stress, panic, nervousness occurs, and it is difficult when you are alone. We have addressed that in our company and we work a lot on teamwork and support each other, to feel that we are not alone and isolated.
Primary and secondary school children have a lot of stress due to grades or homework and I think it is easier when you are in class and you share the stress with other students. Now students are alone and have more stress, and it needs to be addressed, because young people are facing a mental crisis. “It needs to be worked on in the same way as the corona, because it will affect the future of an entire generation.”
Dehran Muratov
camera: Atanas Petrovski
editing: Arian Mehmeti
