Every fortnight in The National, readers get an insight into the workings of the Scottish Youth Parliament, and learn all about what the elected members are up to and the issues that matter to our young people. The second column from our panel of eight representatives is by Reece Harding, MSYP for Clydesdale.
FOR many of you reading this, it may be a long time since you were in school, while some of you may be like me and in school now. Either way, most will agree that one of the most important objectives of education is to ensure that young people are prepared for everything in their lives ahead.
This part of education has had many different names over the years. Some of you will know it as Personal and Social Education (PSE), others will know it as Social Education, and some may know it by its current name under the Curriculum for Excellence, Health and Wellbeing. The name isn’t important; what is important is how well education helps young people to develop the knowledge and skills they need to manage the opportunities, challenges and responsibilities they will face as they grow up into adulthood.
Many young people, like myself, are concerned that we aren’t learning everything we need to ensure we are prepared for transitioning into adulthood. The gaps in our education can range from concrete skills, like one of my constituents outlining that they “don’t have a clue how to set up a mortgage or how to get insurance for my car”, to issues that underpin every aspect of our lives, like our mental health.
Myself and my fellow Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYPs) conducted research last year into young people’s experience and awareness of mental health information, services and support. Respondents expressed a desire for more mental health education in schools, with one saying that “teaching pupils about mental health is way down the list of priorities”, and another saying that “it’s felt to be more important for you to get qualifications than be healthy and happy at school”.
Young people are also calling out and asking for improvements to relationship and sexual education. All areas of our education should be LGBT inclusive, and particularly so when it comes to our relationship and sexual education. We live in a digital world, so our sexual education should teach us about consent in both a person-to-person context, and within the digital world.
The question educators and decision-makers should be asking is “how do we ensure young people are engaged with the subject matter, and how do we ensure PSE is covering all the topics that are relevant in their lives?”. It is useless for adults to sit around and ponder these questions. The answer is simple, ASK US. Involving young people in the design of PSE will ensure that the curriculum will be relevant to us, and will increase our engagement with the subject.
In 2015 the Children and Young Peoples’ Commissioner for Scotland published a report on “How Young People’s Participation in School Supports Achievement and Attainment”. It concluded that for young people a rights-based education was integral to achievement and attainment, and found that in schools where young people had opportunities to contribute to the decisions and structures that governed them, they were achieving beyond expectations. Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child says that young people have the right to have their voices heard on the issues that affect them, and this right should certainly be upheld when it comes to our education.
Taking a rights-based approach, and involving young people in the design and content of PSE curriculum and delivery is imperative. By building self-esteem, resilience and empathy, an effective PSE programme can tackle barriers to learning, raise aspirations and improve the life chances of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged young people. Effective and relevant PSE will help young people achieve more across the entire curriculum, and will better prepare us for life when we leave school, whether it be work, higher education or just being happy and healthy adults.
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