Opposition Politicians Call for Systemic Changes to Protect Young People

Bratislava, 2 October (TASR) - Opposition politicians are calling for systemic changes in the area of youth protection, as they don't consider a proposal drafted by the Education Ministry, which is currently before Parliament, to be sufficient, TASR learnt on Friday. The opposition politicians also criticised several statements made by coalition politicians, which they described as aggressive and confrontational, calling for less aggression in the public sphere and for positive role models for young people. This follows statements made by MPs Beata Jurik (PS), Veronika Remisova (Slovakia-For the People), Andrea Turcanova (KDH), Vladimira Marcinkova (SaS) and Monika Podhorany Masarikova of the extra-parliamentary Democrats party. "Education, civic education, media literacy, relationship and sex education, as well as education in critical thinking, which would protect our children, have been neglected. And I'm fully aware that these aren't things that will change overnight. We simply have to invest in them. There must be systematic measures, systematic solutions and reforms. We have a system, the individual components of which — the police, prosecution and courts — don't cooperate. This is often where things fail. Schools and social services. These are all problems that we need to address and resolve," declared Jurik. The politicians also spoke about insufficient funding for non-governmental and non-profit organisations, which, they said, play a key role in protecting young people. 'For the People' chair Remisova criticised the fact that projects aimed at combating violence in schools didn't receive funding under this year's call issued by the Justice Ministry. She also pointed to funding models for non-profit organisations in other countries. "In Germany, they have multi-year funding designed to last for eight years, which means that they receive funding for eight years and can plan interventions and employ experts. I think that this is the direction that we should take," she added. The opposition politicians also commented on the government's bill addressing the protection of young people from radicalisation. They described it as insufficient, conceding that it could be a first step, but stressing that further changes will also be needed. "No councils and no meetings at regional level will resolve or monitor the situation that is taking place in our schools. Likewise, no expensive cameras will save children and teachers from attacks [...] Teachers and headteachers lack basic training and clear procedures in the event of an active attacker," warned Turcanova. In her view, systemic changes are needed, including specialist teams directly in schools, accessible school psychologists, and mandatory training and exercises for teachers and pupils regarding crises. Podhorany Masarikova also spoke about other shortcomings in the government's bill. Regarding the proposal concerning a ban on social media for children under 16, she asked how age could be realistically verified. "How can we be sure that a child isn't registering using the name of a sibling?" she asked. She also questioned how data will be protected once a system for exchanging information between institutions is set up. The politicians also criticised statements made by some coalition politicians and called for less aggression in the public sphere. Marcinkova also highlighted the issue of children's mental health. "Statistics show that 30 percent of young people are currently struggling with anxiety, consider their lives to be bad and feel unable to cope. These are frightening statistics. Even more alarming are figures showing that there are 19,000 young people per psychiatrist in Slovakia. There are districts in Slovakia without a single school psychologist," she warned, calling for moves to resolve the shortage of psychologists to be made a priority. mf/df