Meeting of the Parliament 21 January 2016
I read Education Scotland’s report with interest, and I wondered whether I should declare an interest as a recipient of the Rotary International youth leadership award way back in the last century. I also note that the report goes even further back than that to highlight a lecture on education given in 1958 by John Macmurray. I thought that a few members might have referred to it this afternoon; its title was “Learning to be human”, which seems a simple but powerful place to begin.
As in life, part of learning is to make mistakes. At its most basic, teaching children to become adults is probably the most important task that each of us will undertake either as parents ourselves or as part of the village or community that surrounds, supports and raises each young person. Of course, it is also a task that we as individuals take responsibility for ourselves. What kind of person do we want to be and what contribution do we seek to make? It is not a task that we face only when we are young but a process of learning that never ends.
As we know, the thing to do with never-ending tasks is to break them down into milestones, objectives and achievements, and not just to rack up achievements and awards but to strive to improve on them. That aim should be at the heart of our ambition to continually improve opportunities for our young people and consequently for our society.
The report highlights many strengths of the youth work sector in Scotland and rightly credits the range of awards that young people are achieving. If the challenge of our job is, sometimes, to assist our constituents when things are not going so well for them or to seek to improve their lot, one of the very great rewards and privileges that we get is the many opportunities to engage with those who give outstanding service to others and who achieve great—or, indeed, simple—things for themselves and for our communities.
Many times in my past five years in the Parliament, I have had the opportunity to acknowledge particular achievements by our young people, whether through, as the minister herself highlighted, engagement with young people during the referendum campaign or more recently through mentoring young people on a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association programme that I am grateful to the CPA branch here for allowing me to do. I have also judged debating competitions and have sometimes presented awards. However, probably more important was just listening to our young people, particularly those from the Save the Children young ambassadors programme talking about the challenges in their lives and their efforts to overcome them.
Whether it is in sport, music, citizenship or care, young people’s range of achievements needs to be recognised and rewarded by society. Many of the most amazing things that young people do are done quietly—sometimes out of necessity—and for many young people living in more difficult circumstances recognition of their achievements is perhaps hardest to find.
The award programme that I mentioned was specifically targeted at young people who might not otherwise benefit from youth awards. I remember taking part in it and being somewhat overwhelmed by the range of opportunities that some of the other young people I met had had. I think that that is an experience that many of us who had the opportunity to attend university will recall having when first arriving there.
Presiding Officer, I think that you are gesturing to me through the darkness in the chamber to hurry up, but I might have a bit of leeway as I cannot quite see you.
The minister will be aware of my previous involvement with the children’s panel system and the groups of young people she referred to in her speech. I certainly encourage every effort to widen the information that is available so that as many young people as possible can take up the available opportunities.
I will end, Presiding Officer, simply by commending all the good work that is going on. I am sure that the minister is aware of many other examples, but I can certainly commend the many organisations in my region of Glasgow that do an awful lot to teach our young people how to be human.
Thank you very much, Presiding Officer.