The city of Cazin is one of the local self-government units that cares for young people and regularly allocates funds intended to improve their position. In the past few months, the Institute for Youth Development KULT, in cooperation with the City of Cazin, has conducted research on the position and needs of young people, with the aim of creating a strategy for young people. Support in the process of surveying and data collection in the field was also provided by the Youth Council of the City of Cazin.
The analysis of the position and needs of young people presents the results of a survey that included 386 people between the ages of 15 and 30, who live in the area of the city of Cazin. After the field research was completed, the preparation of the analysis document with key findings and recommendations aimed at improving the position of young people was started. The responses of young people indicated the needs and problems of young people in Cazin in areas such as education, work and employment, health care, social care, culture and sports, activism and participation, and security.
The analysis of the results of the research on the position and needs of young people is the basis for the development of a strategic document for young people. A few interesting data that were obtained through data analysis stand out:
According to data from the Federal Bureau of Statistics, the city of Cazin has seen a decline in the number of students enrolled in primary schools in the last five years. In 2022/2023. Mr. primary schools in Cazin had 4,064 students enrolled, while in the 2018/2019 school year the city had 5,252 students enrolled in primary schools, which represents a 22.6% drop in the number of students enrolled in a five-year period. A similar trend is noted in secondary education, where in the same time frame, a decrease in the number of secondary school students was recorded by 15.3%, i.e. by 316 students. The trend of decreasing the number of students enrolled in primary and secondary schools is noticeable in a large number of communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially in the area of local self-government units in the Una-Sana Canton.
The city of Cazin awards scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students. Although according to the analysis of the results of the research, a very dominant majority of young people stated that they do not receive a scholarship (84.7%), it is important to point out that the reason for this is the fact that the City does not allocate scholarships for high school students, who make up a significant part of the respondents within the surveyed sample.
Young people point out that practical teaching is still insufficient for an easier transition from school to the labor market. Despite the fact that one third of young people stated that they had practice several times a week, but not every day, as the most dominant deficiency in education young people consider the lack of practical classes, i.e. 71% of them.
In addition, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that 77.7% of young people stated that they had never attended any form of informal education, which potentially indicates a lack of informal forms of education.
The analysis of the research results showed that almost half (46%) of the employed young people do the work for which they were educated, which is a fairly high percentage. One third of young people (30.1%) claim that the best job is to have their own business. At the same time, two fifths of young people, or 39.4%, expressed the desire to start their own business, but pointed out that they are currently unable to do so for various reasons. Young people point out that they need not only financial support when starting a business, but also educational support about business, advisory/mentoring support, market – connecting with customers, as well as legal support.
Almost 82% of young people claim to live with their parents, whether they live in apartments or houses owned by their parents or live together with their parents, but as tenants.
A special focus should be placed on the area of youth health care, that is, regular care of one’s own health. Worrying data is that two-thirds of young people in Cazin (67.1%) do not remember the last time they had a systematic examination, as well as the fact that almost three-fifths of young women in Cazin (58.8%) have never had a gynecological examination.
According to the analysis of the research results, young people in the area of the city of Cazin are satisfied with the respective local authorities when it comes to sports and cultural content.
The analysis also indicates that young people are not satisfied with the state of security, as almost 65% of young people during the survey stated that they are more dissatisfied than satisfied with the security situation in the city area.
For more information on the position and needs of young people, see the Analysis of the position and needs of young people in the city of Cazin .
The Law on Youth of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina obliges all levels of government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to define, adopt and implement strategies for young people, and the City of Cazinje is one of a number of government institutions that recognized the need to create a strategic document for young people. The strategy document includes a comprehensive and systematic approach to the problems and needs of young people, and the research analysis provides the necessary data that indicate the greatest needs and problems of young people that should be covered by the strategic document and that need to be solved with appropriate measures and activities during the strategy’s validity period.
The process of creating a strategic document for young people in the area of the city of Cazin is led by the Coordinating Body and working groups for creating a strategy for young people in cooperation with the Institute for Youth Development KULT.
Source: mladi.org
