This year has been incredibly hard for everyone – particularly for young people. In fact, it’s affected teenagers like me so much that we have been famously categorised as “Generation Covid”.
We’ve experienced the loss of our education, the exams fiasco, the chaotic situation at universities – combined with the impact on family finances and mental health – and now, many more uncertainties lie ahead. Our very futures are at stake.
So, it’s no wonder that after witnessing the way the pandemic has disproportionately affected certain sectors of society (BAME people have been dying more from Covid-19, highlighting health inequalities, housing conditions, the disparity of occupations and structural racism), we are determined to make a change.
That’s because Covid-19 has politicised the young, indirectly – as well as directly. It’s made us think more. We no longer want, or are prepared to accept, the status quo.
My own thinking (and commitment to action) coincided with the first Black Lives Matter protests. The unlawful and barbaric killing of George Floyd highlighted the racial prejudices we have across the world.
Issues like the climate crisis and LGBTQ+ rights have rightly captured the attention of Generation Z, but BLM has also encouraged my generation to learn about structural and systematic racism in society, and police brutality against black people. It has encouraged young people to protest peacefully, and it encouraged me to protest, despite the fact the some of my friends didn’t agree with the movement.
The second was the flawed algorithm system that the government used to grade exams last year, which destroyed thousands of students’ lives. For the first time in my life, I wrote to over 20 peers, my MP, I spoke on TV and even wrote about it.
My community in Shipley, West Yorkshire, is at the heart of one of the worst-hit areas in the country for Covid-19 – and it’s hard on us. Research shows young people in the North and the West Midlands have been disproportionately hit by “severe cuts” to youth services. The pandemic has even made me want to fight for devolution for Yorkshire.
For example, northern workers on furlough were offered just 67 per cent of their wages, whereas the whole country now has 80 per cent. The pandemic has also exposed a lot of injustices and inequalities; from the way the NHS is run, to economic injustices. We’re taught that the UK is honest and trustworthy, but then the government awards more than £17bn of contracts to private companies – including Tory contacts. I have been so enraged by the government’s incompetence and (what looks a lot like) cronyism.
Most young people get their political education and knowledge from their life experiences – such as Marcus Rashford, who lived through child hunger – or through studying politics at school or university. Yet, currently, there is no mandatory political education.
A survey by Shout Out UK found that more than 70 per cent of students would welcome the creation of a government and politics GCSE; and, just recently, a new all-party parliamentary group on political literacy (APPG ) has launched, which aims to strengthen political literacy education so that young people (regardless of background) can play an informed, active role in our democracy.
Young people often get accused of being politically “apathetic”, but we need to look at why that happens. The issue isn’t apathy itself – it’s what leads to it. Apathy amongst young people (or, in fact, in anyone) is a result of the system becoming too complex. People no longer understand it, get frustrated by it – and avoid it.
Increasing political literacy would give me, and my fellow members of Generation Z, a clearer understanding of what politics is, how our society works and why voting is relevant and important.
The Tories argue that they will not lower the voting age to 16, because young people don’t know enough about politics – or may get swayed by their parents, friends or teachers. But the way to overcome this is through political education. And where better to receive impartial, factual, non-partisan education than in our schools?
Young people have always had the power to make monumental and positive changes in the world, all the way from Malala Yousafzai to Greta Thunberg. But Covid-19 has lit a fire inside ofmy generation – and just in time.
It is both captivating and inspiring to see how my peers are galvanised now to make changes; even to tackle is willing to change everything, even things that are perceived as frivolous or irrelevant to other generations, things that the older generation failed us on.
We are inconceivably more political – we are unassailable – so politicians must be prepared.
Qais Hussain is a 16-year-old GCSE student and Labour Party youth officer from Shipley, West Yorkshire, UK
