EU PROGRES

High school students and representatives of Student Parliaments in the municipalities of Bujanovac, Kuršumlija and Raška, who took part in the good governance workshops within the campaign “I Want to … because I Live Here” in late May, showed that they understood this topic well. They, however, also noted that they did not have the opportunity to apply the principles of good governance often.

Around 60 high school students attended the three workshops held in the municipalities of Bujanovac, Kuršumlija and Raška from 24 to 31 May 2012. The workshops aimed at familiarising the high school students with the concept and fundamental principles of good governance, such as accountability, transparency, civic participation, efficiency and equality. The students also had the opportunity to share their suggestions about how to improve the implementation of the concept in their local communities and how they can contribute to the process.

The work of Student Parliaments was used as an example to explain the concept of good governance to the high school students. The students recognised the elements of this concept in their work, the obstacles to the practical implementation of good governance and how to overcome them. 

Although high school students have a good understanding of good governance and the principles of accountability, transparency, civic participation, efficiency and equality that need to be complied with, they very rarely have the opportunity to discuss let alone take any decisions on them in practice. Most of the examples they gave in illustration of these principles regarded the failure to implement the good governance concept at all levels of governance – from the school to the local and state administrations.

“Only on occasions like this one does anyone ask us what we think. Not even to mention that we do not have the opportunity to all sit down together like this, except at workshops like this one,” said a high school student from Bujanovac, who praised the fact that the workshop was organised for Albanian, Serb and Roma students together.

After the introductory session, the students were divided into five teams and each team worked on one of the five principles of good governance (accountability, transparency, civic participation, efficiency and equality) and was tasked with identifying a problem in complying with the principle, a solution to the problem and the stakeholders. All the teams then presented their solutions to all the participants, who then discussed each example and whether they could influence the current circumstances. The problems the students focused on ranged from the non-transparent procurement of school equipment, the long time they have to wait to be issued their documents, employment based on party affiliation rather than merit, to the installation of ramps for people with disabilities.

“I got an idea what we ourselves, as the Parliament, can do better, and we may launch some activities in school, too,” the representative of the Kuršumlija High School said.

The young people living in these three municipalities, however, perceive their peers’ lack of motivation and belief that they can change anything as the gravest problem.

“Everyone is just thinking of ways to move away,” the students said in unison.

This is precisely the reason why the campaign “I Want to… because I Live Here” has involved high schools in activities demonstrating the importance of what every single individual can and, indeed, should do to help bring about improvements in his community.

The campaign “I Want to… because I Live Here” is implemented by the European Union and the Government of Switzerland via the European Partnership with Municipalities Programme EU PROGRES in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and the communications agency Executive Group with the aim of promoting the key principles of good governance and the importance of their consistent implementation in everyday practice, as well as of the ways in which private citizens and institutions can cooperate and thus encourage the further development of their local communities.