Morocco celebrates Youth Day in a context marked by new challenges
“A young person cannot be called upon to play his role and fulfill his duty without having first benefited from the necessary opportunities and qualifications. To this young person, we must offer something concrete, particularly in terms of education, employment, health and many other areas. To this young person, we must give hope and confidence in his future ”.
2020 will be an exceptional year at all levels. While Morocco was conducting a deep reflection on its development model, the Covid-19 came to turn everything upside down on a planetary scale. Of course, the pandemic has had a heavy impact on health, economic and social levels in the world and in Morocco, but it also presents many opportunities. Young people have been among the most affected since the pandemic has shaken up a number of pre-established concepts, particularly in the education system and in the world of employment. After the absorption of the first shocks, it is time to mobilize to restart the machine. It is in this context that Morocco today celebrates the Youth Day.
Over time, this occasion has become a meeting place to take stock of the achievements and the main challenges for young people. It must be said that youth has been one of the most present themes in royal speeches in recent years.
In this sense, the royal speech delivered on August 20, 2018 represents a real roadmap for public action in favor of young people in order to respond to their main concerns, particularly in terms of employment and education. “A young person cannot be called upon to play his role and fulfill his duty without having first benefited from the necessary opportunities and qualifications. To this young person, we must offer something concrete, particularly in terms of education, employment, health and many other areas. To this young person, we must give hope and confidence in his future ”, underlined the Sovereign. “In fact, socio-professional integration is not a privilege granted to young people. Because every citizen, whatever the background from which he comes, has the right to the same opportunities and the same chances of access to quality education and a decent job. This is why the youth unemployment rate, which remains high, is a real source of consternation for me, ”added HM the King, who at the same time announced a series of measures in favor of young people. A royal appeal was launched to “undertake a global overhaul of the mechanisms and public support programs for youth employment, to make them more effective and adapted to the expectations of young people”.
It is also a question of “giving priority to specialties which make it possible to find a job and to set up an effective system of early guidance at the level of the second or third year preceding the baccalaureate. Its role is to help the pupils, according to their aptitudes and their inclinations, to make one or the other of the two choices: to engage in a university course or a professional training ”.
In addition, the Sovereign had called for “an in-depth review of the specialties of vocational training so that they meet the needs of companies and the public sector, and that they are in phase with the transformations that the industrial and professional sectors are experiencing. Thus, the winners will have a better chance of integrating professionally ”.
Finally, it is a question of the establishment of “practical mechanisms to qualitatively improve the devices encouraging young people to create small and medium-sized enterprises in their fields of specialization and to support self-employment and business creation initiatives. social ”.
Currently and while Morocco is leading a response against the pandemic, it is certain that the lessons learned from this ordeal will make it possible to adapt policies in favor of young people so as to overcome the constraints but also and above all seize the Covid-opportunity. 19.
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