PLANS TO expand the existing National Youth Service (NYS) to include a component which will make enrolment of unemployed youth who are out of school mandatory are being studied by the Government. There are tremendous potential benefits for the country in the proposals but also administrative nightmares as well.
The proposed Jamaican mandatory service is to target 10,000 unemployed youth and is estimated to cost about $700 million. Whether this is too little, too late remains to be seen but it would be a start if the logistics can be worked out.
In the 1970s, the Michael Manley administration introduced a more fully-developed national youth service which had strong support from among the more idealistic youth. But the idea of a two-year compulsory Jamaican Youth Corps goes back to the brief Prime Ministership of Sir Donald Sangster in 1968 who commissioned leading businessmen of the time to submit papers on the proposal.
One of the models used was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) introduced in the United States in 1933 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to counter the effects of the 'Great Depression' then sapping the economic vitality of the nation. The CCC was administered by the American military which was responsible for housing, transportation and initial training. Enrollees were taught a variety of skills including reading, typing, social courtesy, citizenship, motor mechanics, printing, metal and leather craft. But physical work was the raison d'etre of the project. Given the chance to learn and to work, the Depression youth learned self-respect and discipline while earning money for themselves and their families.
There are many merits to the idea of a compulsory service. Young people who might otherwise be unemployed can be exposed to the disciplined environment of the working world or an organisation rather than to remain idle at home or on the street corners; they can be taught new and useful skills that will serve them in good stead once they have completed their term of service.
But there are also practicalities to consider. Are sanctions contemplated for those who opt out of this mandatory programme? How will these be enforced and administered? Will truancy officers be required to ensure that those who are deliberately dodging the programme be drafted? If those areas can be addressed, the better features of the CCC might be applicable to Jamaica and detailed study of the American model might prove rewarding.
The expansion of the programme is a good idea that should be supported by Jamaicans at all levels of the society and all efforts should be made to educe the potential bureaucratic hurdles that may accompany its implementation.
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