National Youth Service :
A Global Perspective
Contents
Introduction
1: National Service Programs and Proposals
Profiles of National Service
2: Aspects of National Youth Service (this page)
Appendix A: Global Conference Participants, June 18-21, 1992
Appendix B: Annotated Bibliography
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2. Aspects of national youth service
Introduction
From June 18 to June 21, 1992, 30 persons from 14 nations met at the Wingspread Conference Center in Wisconsin where they discussed a variety of approaches to national service and explored their areas of common ground as well as their differences. (See Appendix A for a list of participants). The presentation of the main features of national service in the respective countries (see Chapter 1) formed the basis for consideration of a number of common themes, as described in this chapter.
The conference was chaired by Donald J. Eberly, executive director of the National Service Secretariat in Washington, DC. In his opening remarks, he said that "those of us who have been students of national service for some years are impressed with the fact that a dozen or more countries have devised common programs -- usually a year or so of full-time civilian service in a cross-cultural setting -- to respond to very different circumstances. These circumstances may include conscription, high youth unemployment, deep divisions in a multi-ethnic country, a lack of experiential education, a dearth of service providers, a threatened environment. A program that many of us refer to as 'national service' is seen as a partial answer to these problems; this fact suggests that it may be worth holding onto and improving over time. This belief is strengthened by the fact that national service often does more than solve a given problem. It also delivers additional benefits to the country and to the young people involved in national service.
"Do we all agree on the definition of national service? Probably not. Almost every word you look up in an English dictionary has more than one meaning. The same is true of the phrase 'national service.' It refers at some times to a service that includes both military and civilian forms, and at other times to only civilian or only military service. Most but not all of our discussions will focus on civilian forms of national service. The meaning of national service usually will be clear from the context of our remarks. If it is not, we should say what we mean by national service." Mr. Eberly also noted the use, in the United States, of related expressions such as "youth service, which includes part-time as well as full-time service by young people; service-learning, which refers to the integration of service with learning; and national youth service, which embraces national service, youth service, and service-learning."
Mrs. Galaletsang Maakwe, director of Tirelo Setshaba, Botswana's national service, gave the first keynote speech. Tirelo Setshaba is 12 years old; with one young person in Tirelo Setshaba for every 250 residents, Botswana has the highest ratio of national service participants to population of any country represented at the conference.
Mrs. Maakwe began with a global view. "At this point," she said, "allow me to wander around the world and gather some facts about the youth situation. I wish to do so because we are gathered here to address a youth-specific subject which we must clearly understand before we move further into the details.
"The number of world youth is said to have increased by 79 percent from 1960 to 1984 (515 million to 922 million), according to the United Nations report on the 'Situation of Youth in the 1990s.' Youth unemployment figures are said to be approaching 50 percent in both developed and developing countries. Ninety-eight percent of the child laborers aged between 10 and 14 are found in developing countries. 'Street children' have also multiplied, with fast increases in urban populations, as complicated by rural-urban migration, which prevails especially in the less developed countries. This has led to inevitable problems of juvenile delinquency, including drug abuse, alcoholism, and crime, amongst our future leaders. Otherproblems facing the youth and children are due to the breakdown of the family unit as caused by modern life and development, which separate the wife from the husband.
"Young people are faced with the problem of transition from childhood to adulthood. They are a frustrated group which does not even play a role in decisions affecting them."
Mrs. Maakwe spoke of the need to exchange information when she said that although "our scheme is supposed to have developed by using ideas from schemes in other parts of the world, we have never had the opportunity to visit those countries and see how those schemes operate." She welcomed what she called "this historic conference" and recommended that the national service leaders present seize the opportunity "to learn from each other's experiences and problems so that we do not repeat the mistakes made by some of our colleagues elsewhere."
Mrs. Maakwe concluded by posing three questions: "Do we want to continue to spend more on military expenditures or more on the national youth service schemes to give our respective nations a better future?
"Would it be better to hold national service before or after tertiary education?
"Can our societies afford to sit back and let nature take its course where our children are concerned because it is felt to be too expensive to shape them for future roles?"
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