Quality of life, internships and the right to vote were some of the topics that the Youth Parliament has been looking into over the past year. On Friday morning, representatives of the Youth Parliament had the opportunity to present their views on these issues to MPs. In the presence of Fernand Etgen (the President of the Chamber of Deputies), Moritz Ruhstaller (the President of the Youth Parliament) and other politicians, the representatives of the Youth Parliament presented resolutions that their respective commissions had been working on over the course of the year.
The first resolution is the work of the Education Commission and relates to the use of technology in the classroom. More and more schools use tablets in their classrooms, but many teacher do not really know how to use them or how to best integrate them into lessons.
Often enough, there are infrastructural problems, such as a lack of plugs, poor internet connections and a lack of experts. As a result, the Youth Parliament requests a mandatory CPD (continued professional development) for teachers to learn about how to use iPads appropriately in the classroom. The Youth Parliament also demands that all schools should make the same use of tablets.
Furthermore, they demand access to digitised text books. They are eco-friendly, interactive and can also be accessed by pupils with eyesight problems. These books should be accessible to all students.
Djuna Bernard, the Vice President of the Education Commission, was pleased about the proposal put forward by these young people.
The second resolution put forward by the group relates to internships for pupils and students. One suggestion ist the introduction of a short internship or work experience for students in 4e classique (Year 10, pupils typically aged 15-16). This could last about a week and might help students to choose their direction of further studies for 3e to 1ere (Years 11 to 13).
Another question is that of wages for interns. The Youth Parliament demands a progressive increase of wages for young people based on their educational level, as well as a bonus for costs incurred by the internship (e.g. safety shoes or other equipment).
The Commission for Equality presented their resolution on Luxembourg's electoral system. They lamented that even though society had changed vastly over the last 100 years, the electoral system had virtually stayed he same. Nowadays, only a minority of 43% of the population are entitled to vote. They demand that the electoral system should be adapted to modern times. The suggested changes include the analysis of alternative ways of calculating the votes and new combinations of how to allocate votes to candidates. Other proposed measures include the division of constituencies and the possibility to vote beyond constituencies. Electoral candidates should only be allowed to stand for elections twice, in order to bring some new faces and fresh ideas into the Chamber of Deputies. Furthermore, they demand the right to vote for 16 and 17 year olds and for foreign nationals.
Luxembourg only comes in 18th place on the Mercer Ranking when it comes to environmental quality. This is mostly due to the inadequacy of transport. Cars spend much time standing in traffic jams, public transport is often late and environmentally friendly alternatives, such as bicycles are not practical, said the representatives of the Youth Parliament. In their resolution on quality of life, they request an improved bus and train network and the expansion of cycle routes. Another idea to decrease pollution is the introduction of a vignette which states how environmentally friendly cars are. This measure should be complemented by incentives for those with "cleaner" cars.
They also want to reduce the amount of plastic consumption. In their resolution of waste management, the Youth Parliament demands that supermarkets that do not use packaging, should be subsidised. Recycling should also be improved, as only about 5% of the produced waste is being recycled.
A further resolution relates to human trafficking. They stated that it exists even in Luxembourg and that it is very difficult to establish statistics on these people as many of them do not have documents and therefore do not exist in the eyes of the state. Most victims are prostitutes, women, children and refugees.
Therefore, the Youth Parliament demands the decriminalisation of refugees, such that they can find work more quickly and are less likely to end up working on the black market. This would also reduce the risk of human trafficking and modern slavery.
The final resolution is about euroscepticism. Many people are unaware of the EU does for them in concrete terms. Consequently, schools should take on responsibility when it comes to inform students about the European Union. Positive populism in various countries could be used to promote the advantages of the EU and a common European channel could be launched to fight fake news.
