GOVERNMENT SENATOR Navel Clarke - the Deputy President of the Senate has tabled a Resolution in the Upper House, calling for the introduction of a compulsory National Service. The programme he envisages would be aimed at all young persons ages 15-24 "who have left the school system and who are not seeking to further their education up to tertiary level or have entered into apprenticeship or skills training."
Earl Moxam recently asked Senator Clarke to elaborate on the proposal and explain his reasons for doing so.
EM: Senator Clarke, the concept of a National Service is not unusual, but why do you think participation should be compulsory?
NC: The fact is that we have a National Youth Service which doesn't seem to be attracting enough of the age group that I am targeting. When I checked the national Youth Service had about 12 hundred young people. I thought it was necessary to have a compulsory programme in which there would be an opportunity to get those that I am targeting off the streets. There are currently various attempts to involve them in different types of clubs but these are not universal.
VALUES AND SKILLS
I take my idea from the 1950s and 1960s in England where young people had to do national service. That was in the military but it helped to inculcate certain values and skills. In Jamaica if you are not pursuing tertiary education you should be involved in something similar. There should be a collaborative system between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labour for example, which would provide a conduit for them to become involved in the programme through which they would gain various skills. Nursing for example is one area in which we could train excess young people for overseas employment.
We need to train more carpenters and masons. With the Jamalco expansion coming up we will need to ensure that we have an adequate number of persons with the required skills in those areas, for example.
EM: Would there be a role for the military in this National Service?
NC: It would not necessarily be controlled by the military but there would be the involvement of the military where officers would come in maybe once per week to make an input. We still have to train the minds of these young people, take them away from the lure of drugs and it cannot be left up to them to do it on their own. Some could be channelled into the military if, after the basic aptitude test, it is determined that they could have a career in that area.
EM: Have you tested this idea with people in government or in business?
NC: The first question I was asked was where would the money come from. I said there had to be some kind of a commitment; we have to look at whether this was an idea that is worth pursuing and then go about sourcing the funds. There is a great need for the private sector to get involved as well. There is nothing that I have seen so far that satisfies the need I have identified. How can you create jobs for people who are not trained for these jobs? It will take a comprehensive programme such as I am promoting in the Resolution to achieve that and somehow the money will have to be sourced, once it is accepted as a viable programme.
PARTICIPATION
EM: How would you enforce participation in this National Service?
NC: Young people who are about to leave school would have to indicate whether they are going on to another institution for further education/ training and if not you would be sent into this programme. The Government would have to create a system whereby the school would inform the Ministry of Education, which would then inform the Ministry of Labour and the two bodies would have to collaborate with an agency such as the National Youth Service which would administer an educational/aptitude test to determine where they would go. I don't think the police would have to be brought into it, but if necessary it may be useful to have them ensure that young people found to be spending too much time on the streets are questioned and channelled into the programme if they are in the target group. In Barbados the police are involved in getting the young people off the streets.
EM: The Resolution that you have tabled is likely to fall off of the Order Paper for this legislative year, which is almost at an end. I assume that you will reintroduce it in the new legislative year.
NC: Yes, I will, with the intention of having it debated early in the next legislative year. In the meantime I'm doing more research on the issue. You would probably find it surprising the number of young people who have left the school system and are not involved in any useful activity across the country. I will be seeking to get all the related details to strengthen the case for the introduction of the programme being proposed so that when it comes time for the debate, I can make the strongest argument possible.
