Eight high school students from Gostivar have been part of the debate school organized by the association – Youth Association from Gostivar for two weeks. “These two weeks at the debate school, I learned new things that I have not learned in school yet,” said Onur Akiku, one of the participants, while for Feta Sakiri, these activities help her freely express her thoughts and face others.
The workshop held on November 17, 2022, at the Youth and Community Centre in Gostivar was intensive. The participants learned more about communication, active listening, perception, and interview as an essential part of the debate. The new skills were tested on the topic “Should cell phones be allowed during class” where they expressed their thoughts and provided sufficient arguments.
The association’s motivation for the project’s start is the advocacy for accountability and transparency of the candidates for mayors of Gostivar during the entire political campaign for the 2021 municipal elections. Unfortunately, according to the association, everything remains to be discussed without implementation. On the other hand, the interest of young people in accountability and institutional transparency fades, so one gets the impression that it wants to extinguish the critical and reasonable voice of young people. Public debates are crucial for transparency. Unfortunately, they are not very common in the Municipality of Gostivar, OYA believes.
The project aims to increase the transparency of local government by encouraging public debate and accountability and involving young people in decision-making.
The debate school will last eight weeks, and the young people will have the opportunity to debate on various topics and learn a lot about debate and communication, skills that they will use in the activities that follow, i.e., in the public debates.
The implementation of this debate school is made possible by the project “Support to Electoral Reforms in North Macedonia” of the Government of Switzerland, implemented by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), and the grants are administered by the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC).
