9.1 General context
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Main concepts
The National Programme for Youth 2013–2022 (Resolucija o Nacionalnem programu za mlade 2013–2022) aims to support and foster the participation and representation of young women and men (see 6.2.1, priority sub-field 3: encouraging and strengthening of permanent mechanisms for consultation with young people). The programme mainly addresses youth dialogue in an attempt to ensure timely and effective contributions on the part of young people to the formulation of public policies that concern them, such as education, youth policy, health etc. Young people should increase their awareness so that they can actively influence the shaping of public policies in the EU. Young people should also become awareness of their joint ownership of the European idea.
Consequently, the main concepts of this program are in accordance with the new European Union’s notion of ‘youth dialogue’.
Slovenia made significant steps in establishing a national youth policy after joining the European Union. In 2010, the Public Interest in Youth Sector Act (Zakon o javnem interesu v mladinskem sektorju) was adopted, which established key youth policy definitions and provided the basis for the adoption of the National Programme for Youth.
Key youth policy definitions in 4 Article of the Public Interest in Youth Sector define youth policy as a coordinated set of measures of various sectoral public policies.The main aim of youth policy is to promote and facilitate the integration of young people into the community's economic, cultural, and political life. And also an appropriate support mechanism for the development of youth work and the operation of youth organizations, which takes place in cooperation with autonomous and democratic representatives of youth organizations and professional and other organizations.
A youth program is a program of measures in the youth sector implemented by organizations for young people, intending to ensure better conditions for the life, functioning, and organization of young people; and runs continuously throughout most of the year and includes a large number of active participants. It also defines the youth sector as where the process of creating and implementing youth policies and work takes place and youth infrastructure as a physical space primarily for young people. It also defines youth dialogue as an open, transparent, long-term, continuous, and systematic dialogue between young people and authorities at the national and local levels in the youth sector.
Youth interest in global issues
There have been no recent studies of young people’s interest or participation in global issues. In the national study Youth 2020 data mention youth attitude towards global issues such as sustainability, particularly environment, climate change, quality of drink water and air pollution. Youth in Slovenia in general perceive environmental chanllagnes as a problem or even big problem. They are very sensitive about nature issues, although when we compare them with the consumption needs, we can see that they still belive that material goods are important, though they prefere fair trade. The trend also shows better satisfaction with the democracy among youth. Awarness about environment, economic orientation and state regulation are important conditions for the development of the sustainable development, which is aligned with the care for the sustainable development.
Alsto, the Eruopean Parliament Youth Suvery 2021 shows, young people in Slovenia global issues such as climate change put on 4th place, in comparison with EU level where this is on 2nd place. Tackling cyber or online threats, dealing with the challenges of immigration, and tackling the rise of extremism, emerge as lower issues on EU and also on Slovenian level.
International comparisons of the responses of Slovenian 15-year-olds to the questions in the questionnaire, published in the publication Global competences of male and female students in the PISA 2018 survey, show that compared to their peers from the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), on average, they report a similar awareness of different global issues, respect for people from other cultures, an equivalent level of skill in understanding the perspective of others and the skill of mental adaptation in new circumstances. In addition, compared to students from OECD countries, on average, they report lower self-efficacy in explaining global issues, lower interest in learning about other cultures, less positive attitudes towards immigrants, lower intercultural communication skills, and lower responsiveness to various global issues. Slovenian 15-year-olds also reported a lower frequency of involvement in individual activities related to global learning at school compared to students from OECD countries; they also said a more significant presence of discriminatory behavior by teachers towards students from other cultures.