With the long summer holidays just beginning, training centers run by the Ministry of Education will soon welcome students wishing to learn something new. The courses usually concentrate on culture, sport and various social activities. The centers need to look at the rapid changes in our society over the years and encourage greater participation in voluntary work.
It would be good to see our youth involved in visible community activities outside closed classrooms where the training is conducted. Summer centers should instill in youth the realization of the need for voluntary work. This is an area that unfortunately has remained outside the concern of educational institutions for too long.
The summer training centers are certainly important and useful for our young people. Their value could be increased if they encouraged the youth to come forward, without being asked, and volunteer to undertake activities beneficial to them and the community. In the absence of this encouragement and awareness, many young simply refuse to become involved in any work outside what is considered their domain unless they are paid for it. They have this idea even if they know that the work would benefit them personally, their families and the local community.
It might be difficult in the beginning to convince someone who has never before volunteered to come forward without waiting to be rewarded in kind apart from praise and encouragement. Difficulties however should not discourage us from presenting the initiative and seeking to secure both material and moral support from government and private levels.
The success of the experiment would encourage more youth to involve themselves in voluntary activities. This is very important, especially given the circumstances now prevailing in the country. It would please all of us to see our young people and other members of society coming forward to do voluntary work in their neighborhoods, local communities, schools and social service centers such as those caring for senior citizens and people with special needs. An important first step toward this would be for educational institutions to play a pivotal role.
