“Youth is a partner for the government, because building youth policy without cooperation with the former is absurd,” this is the opinion held by the head of the Department for Youth and Sports of the Volyn Regional State Administration, Oleksandr Stelmashchuk. On the day of celebrating the International Student Day, a round table on the topic “Problems of student youth: causes of their emergence and possible ways of solving them” was held in the conference hall of the “Ukraine” hotel. The event took place on the public initiative of the “Association of Young Reformers (AMoRe)” and the Youth Union Our Ukraine, with the support of the Department for Youth and Sports of the Volyn Regional State Administration.
\n The participants of the round table, namely representatives of the regional state administration, rectors' offices of higher educational institutions of the region, leaders of youth public organizations, student trade unions and bodies of student self-government of universities in our region, during a mutual dialogue outlined the main problems faced by student youth, and also assessed the activities of the parties interested in this category of society.
As noted by the head of the Department for Youth and Sports of the Volyn Regional State Administration, Oleksandr Stelmashchuk, at present youth makes up one third of the region's population, among which the total number of students is 30 thousand people. According to Mr. Stelmashchuk, from the first days of the new government's activity, it has been demonstrating new approaches to the implementation of youth policy, which are based on the decrees of the President of Ukraine and the formation of the National Doctrine of Youth Policy of Ukraine, which primarily provides for support of social protection of youth and the provision of proper conditions for the self-realization of the latter.
According to the head of the “Association of Young Reformers,” the head of the student trade union of Lesya Ukrainka Volyn State University, Mykhailo Shelep, “the main cause of the problems faced by student youth is the problem of uncertainty of priorities from the national level to the level of local universities.” Mr. Shelep outlined the main issues around which the discussion was held: social and economic protection of students (student benefits, health improvement of students, housing issue), creation of favorable conditions for obtaining a quality education, raising the level of legal and political culture of students, involving students in solving important issues of university life through active participation in student self-government bodies.
In this context, according to the deputy head of the Department for Youth and Sports of the Volyn Regional State Administration, Nataliia Firko, one of the main factors of the problems is the lack of proper incentive for activity. According to Ms. Firko, the state stimulates students by issuing grants of the President of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, and at the regional level with scholarships of the head of the regional state administration and the regional council. “Today the state scholarship is very meager,” noted the deputy head of the department for family and youth affairs.
Nazar Valchuk