Notes

INVISIBLE YOUTH
The youth, people aged between 15-29, make up roughly the one fourth of the total population in Turkey, and almost half of the that number has no proper education or/and a job. The situation they are in, results in their being called as “Invisible Youth” and it affects not only what is happening in today’s world, but also what will happen in the future. So, it is vital to take their problems seriously as it makes up 21 percent of all people aged between 15-29, according to the data received in August 2018. The reasons behind this condition can be divided into four categories, namely isolation of women from the society, lack of interest in education, social norms and necessity of earning money from a young age. As the development of youth may be considered as a profitable investment in any nation’s future, people should place more emphasis on young people’s problems and on their solutions.
One way to combat for the invisibility of youth is acknowledging the importance of women in the work labour. Today, women are disadvantaged as they are deprived of education and social life, mainly because of recognized domestic expectations on the basis of segregation among genders. Having been thought to be weak and not being able to do a job as effectively as men caused society to perceive women as creatures whose only duties were giving birth as well as being housewives instead of having a higher education apart from the compulsory education. Since families have an integral impact on the future generations, first step must be the acknowledgement of them. Families should be informed about equality of both genders, what a woman is capable of achieving, family and marriage through seminars and infomercials. Also, governments can play an important role by providing free therapy and consultancy services. There are also projects conducted by several corporations to raise awareness in public, such as “Kardelenler” by Turkcell, “Baba Beni Okula Gonder” by Aydin Dogan Vakfi and “Her Kizimiz Bir Yildiz” by Mercedes Benz. These projects can help people to understand the importance of women in a society.
Another way of fighting for the invisible youth would be to ensure that all people have a stable economic state from the day they were born regardless of their race, religion, sex etc.. When people, and especially the young generation, aren’t able to cover up their basic needs, they start seeking job opportunities to overcome their financial problems and thus, cease participating in education and they drop out from school eventually. Even though education is free in many countries, the price that students have to pay in order to purchase stationeries is becoming an immense burden for them. Providing scholarships and supplying the required amount of money for education purposes would be adequate, possible solutions for the economic side of the issue. If it is tackled properly, more people at the age of school would be willing to sustain their academic life.
It would also be a good idea to analyse the circumstances of the group which state “lack of a desire for the school”. Although their problems may look as if they stem from an entirely different reason at first glance, but in reality, why they do not keep attending school is closely related to their economic state at the time. When it is examined in detail, it is possible to see that 60% of the members of this social group comes from a poor family backgrounds and therefore, they may see themselves a burden on their families by continuing their education, which may result in young people’s dropping out of school and start looking for jobs. This situation is severely detrimental to Turkey’s future since it may also deter young people who want to continue attending school from doing so, as they might fall into the fallacy of thinking they harm their families’ economic capacity. In addition to solutions discussed in the third paragraph related to their economic state, this problem can also be overcome by the encouragement of people around the youth. For instance, when a student wants not to get into a university, he/she should be discouraged by his/her parents in the first place. They should try to argue him/her out of it and should remind their child the importance of getting a proper education for his/her life. If that is not the case with the parents, government should improve the quality of schools, teachers and lessons by increasing DEVAMINI BİLMİYOM BICIBICI MİRAY (UMARIM BENİ DÖVMEZSİN KÖTÜ YAZMIŞ OLABİLİRM KONTROL ETMEDİÖ)