Youth Commission bares national study on the young

DAGUPAN CITY, August 12 (PIA) — Almost 6,000 youths in the country expressed their views on issues and concerns confronting them in the latest National Youth Assessment Study presented by the National Youth Commission (NYC).

Commissioner Georgina Nava of NYC Northern Luzon said the 2010 Study dealt with the youth’s social and economic characteristics, interest, aspirations, needs and vulnerabilities.

“The youth sample size for the study is 5,893 and it covered the 14 regions of the country plus the National Capital Region, Cordilleras and ARMM,” Nava said during the regional Youth Consultation held at the University of Luzon Monday.

NYC defines, the youth as people aged 15-30 years old which is further sub-divided into three: 15-17 years old for youth child; 18-24 years old for core youth and; 24-30 years old as young adult, Nava clarified.

Most of the respondents were females (53%) while males accounted for 47 percent and a big bulk accounts for Catholic faithful (77%).

As to access to education, 39 percent of core youth and 48 percent of young adults did not complete studies due to financial constraints. Most males (74%) have no formal schooling and so with those who came from rural areas (54%) and Mindanao (47%).

Forty –seven percent believe that teenage pregnancy is one reason why young people do not finish their studies while eight percent dropped out of school due to drug dependence.

For employment, 97 percent of the respondents desire to have a good job to provide for the needs of the family. Working abroad because of higher pay is preferred by 57 percent of the respondents while 75 percent believe that labor migration is good for the economy but bad for family stability.

Social drinking is prevalent among the core youth (58.7%) while 59 percent engage in ball games and sports.

As to youth perceptions, 90 percent believe that corruption is the major cause of poverty in the Philippines and 84 percent feel that agencies that provide services to the youth need to improve on their performance to meet their expectations.

Sixty percent agree that lesbians and gays are accepted in the country and 49-55 percent think that divorce should be made legal while 74-78 percent think that dynasties should be made illegal.

For the good news, 92 percent of the respondents say they are proud to be Filipinos. (ANL/VHS-PIA 1 Pangasinan)